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STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 



STUDIES 
IN CHRISTIANITY 



BY 



BORDEN PARKER BOWNE 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1909 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS I 
Tv/o Copies Received 

MAR 10 1009 

J--. Copyiijffit £ntry , 



CLASS n,' XXc. No. I 






COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY BORDEN PARKER BOWNE 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



Published Marck iqoq 



PEEFACE 

The first three of these Essays have been sepa- 
rately published before. As they here appear 
they have been revised and considerably extended. 

The Essays have not been written for special- 
ists, nor for professional unbelievers, but solely 
to relieve some of the difficulties under which 
popular religious thought labors because of 
misunderstanding. Indeed, the entire volume 
might be described as an aid to progressive or- 
thodoxy, or as an attempt to combine the new 
theology with the old religion. That the future 
as well as the past belongs to the old religion I 
am perfectly sure. This religion has often been 
ignorantly and inadequately conceived, and even 
caricatured at times by its disciples, but it has the 
advantage over all its competitors and proposed 
substitutes of heing alive; and life counts for 
much in organic history, spiritual as well as 
physical. At the same time the old religion may 
need a new theology for its better expression 
and formulation, and in this sense a new theology 
may be a valuable aid to the old religion. 

Quite unsuspected by the noiser champions, 
the problems of religious debate are fast chang- 



Ti PREFACE 

ing their form. The old-fashioned naturalism, 
with its naive fancy, the more nature the less 
God, is falling into discredit. The immanence 
of God in natural processes permits us to affirm 
a supernatural natural and a natural supernatu- 
ral, to which the old-time naturalistic objections 
have no application. For the same reason the 
old-fashioned supernaturalism, which was purely 
an accident of the deistic philosophy, has under- 
gone a parallel transformation. The super- 
naturalism of to-day is concerned only to find 
God in nature, life, history, miracle, — no matter 
where so long as it finds him ; but it finds him 
predominantly in law and life. This is produc- 
ing a sanity of religious thought beyond any- 
thing known in the past, and it is prophetic of 
still better things to come. 

With the progressive moralizing of religion 
a corresponding change is taking place in the 
inner life itself. Selfishness can work in any field, 
and it has made in religion some of its most 
odious manifestations. The desire to escape 
punishment and to " get off," or be " let off," has 
been unpleasantly prominent in religious history. 
This also is passing away. Not merely to get 
something from God, but to work with him and 
be like him, is becoming more generally the re- 
ligious ideal. Thus the element of gratitude and 



PREFACE vii 

active aspiration is taking precedence of the 
selfish factor. And our thought of rehgion itself 
is more and more passing from the conception of 
a yoke and a burden to which we must submit 
for fear of something worse, to the conception of 
religion as the summit and crown of our being, as 
indeed the supreme condition of large, joyous, 
and abundant life. Thus the old religion, while 
remaining true to type, is gradually freeing itself 
from the crudities of early thought, manifesting 
its essential nature, and building itself into its 
ideal form. To help toward this consummation 
is the purpose of this book. 

BoEBEN Parker Bowne. 

February 22, 1909. 



CONTENTS 

I. The Christian Revelation 1 

n. The Incarnation and the Atonement . . 85 

III. The Christian Life 195 

IV. The Modern Conception of the Kingdom of God 299 
V. The Church and Moral Progress . . .327 

VI. The Church and the Truth .... 355 



I 

THE CHRISTIAN EEVELATION 



STXJDIES IN CHEISTIAOTTY 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 

Our Christian faith is, that God, at sundry times 
and in divers manners, spake unto the fathers by 
the prophets, and that, in the fullness of time, 
he revealed himself unto men by his Son. This 
faith will last as long as the Christian Church; 
I believe it will last as long as the human race. 
Nevertheless, it is possible to conceive the reve- 
lation, its mode and meaning, in such a way as to 
obscure the truth and seriously to embarrass faith. 
There is enough of this misconception in popular 
religious thought to warrant a brief discussion of 
the subject. It is not, then, a question as to the 
reality of revelation, but solely as to the manner 
of conceiving it. 

Of God's self -revealing movement the Bible is 
the historical and literary product and record. 
This does not mean that God has not revealed 
himself elsewhere and in other manners ; but of 
that revealing movement which culminated in 
Christianity the Bible is the product and record. 



4 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

It is the literature which grew out of and around 
the revelation, and it mediates for us a know- 
ledge of the revelation. But on turning to the 
Bible, we soon become conscious of needing some 
guiding principle for its interpretation. Except 
from the right standpoint, the Bible is a most 
embarrassing book. Much of it seems to have no 
connection with those moral and religious inter- 
ests which, we suppose, give revelation its motive 
and value. Instead of a compact expression of 
doctrines to be believed and of duties to be done, 
we have a heterogeneous collection of history, 
geography, biography, genealogy, statistics, lit- 
urgy, poetry, prophecy, sermons, stories, parables, 
letters, and such like. And when questions of con- 
duct are touched upon, they seem to have little 
significance for us. Temple rites, idol worship, 
the tiresome purifications of the Mosaic law, the 
disputes between Pharisees and Sadducees, the 
eating of things offered to idols, — these, and 
similar obsolete questions, are the matters dwelt 
upon ; and for us these questions are as dead 
as the men who raised them. What concern have 
we with prophetic burdens of Egypt, or Moab, or 
Tyre ? And what practical wisdom do we gain 
from them for the guidance of bur own lives ? 
By following out this line of thought, one might 
easily reach the conclusion that the Bible is, for 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 5 

us, obsolete and worthless. The antiquarian and 
student of ancient life might possibly find his 
advantage in it, but the plain, every-day man and 
woman have to worry along about the same with 
the Bible as without it. Indeed, unless we use it 
wisely, we may be even worse off with it than 
without it. Illustration is found in the demen- 
talized textarians and their whims with which the 
history of the Bible abounds. The use of the 
Bible as a book for vaticination on all manner 
of subjects is familiar to every one. It would be 
hard also to find a single step of progress, ethical, 
intellectual, religious, political, which has not 
been resisted and condemned by texts from the 
Bible. As Dry den put it : — 

The fly-blown text conceives an alien brood, 
And turns to maggots what was meant for food. 

Thus we see how the Bible may be an embar- 
rassing and incredible book, conceived as a di- 
vine revelation, unless we get the right point of 
view. For this insight we need no profound schol- 
arship, or long and close communion with the 
higher critics ; the conclusion lies on the surface 
for every one. We obviously need, then, to seek 
for some central idea, which shall unify and il- 
luminate the whole, if we are to find any supreme 
value in it. And such an idea must be sought in 



6 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

a better conception of the purpose and contents 
of revelation. Only thus can we give these dead 
questions and this vanished life any abiding sig- 
nificance for present and future times. 

What, then, is the Christian Revelation? To 
this question many answers might be given ; 
but the one which best sums up the truth, and 
best brings out the great and abiding value 
of Christian teaching, is this : The Christian 
revelation is essentially a revelation of God. It 
teaches us what God is, and what he means. It 
is, primarily and fundamentally, a revelation of 
the righteousness and grace of God. It tells us 
how God feels toward us ; what he has made 
us for; what he has done and is doing for 
us; how we are to think of life and its meaning, 
of death and destiny, of our mutual human 
relations also, and the spirit in which we are to 
live. The answer to these questions constitutes 
the gist of the Christian revelation; and this 
answer the Church forever repeats in its profes- 
sion of faith in God the Father, in his Son our 
Savior and Lord, in the inspiring and sanctifying 
Spirit, in the forgiveness of sins, in the kingdom 
of God upon earth, and in the life everlasting. 
These ideas are at the heart of the Christian 
religion and of Christian civilization ; and these 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 7 

ideas have come with abiding power and definite- 
ness and fullness into the world's thought and 
life only along the line of God's revelation of 
himself through the prophets and through his 
Son. 

The Christian revelation, then, is not the Bible, 
though it is in the Bible. It consists essentially 
in certain ways of thinking about God, his 
character, his purpose in our creation, and his 
relation to us. It has these great ideas for its 
contents, and it is to be approached, studied, and 
understood only in connection with these ideas. 
They constitute its chief value for us. However 
the pentateuchal question might fall out, or what- 
ever our view concerning the second Isaiah, we 
are Christian so long as we hold the Christian 
view of God and man and their mutual relations ; 
and the only abiding significance of the Bible lies 
in helping us to this view. With this view, we 
can dispense with everything else; and without 
this view, it matters little what else we have. 
And if the Bible helps us to this view ; if this 
long history is an illustration and object lesson 
whereby we may discern what God is and what 
he means, — then its value and perennial signifi- 
cance begin to appear. And if we further find 
that nowhere else can the divine character and 
purpose be so clearly discerned, then it is mani- 



8 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

fest that in the historic movement out of which 
Christianity has come, we have a revelation of 
God which outranks in value all others which he 
may have made, or which men may have feigned 
or imagined. 

It is from this point of view that the need and 
value of the Christian revelation are to be de- 
termined. When we consider it as a dogmatic 
treatise in abstract speculative theology, or as a 
text-book in ethics, or as anything but a revela- 
tion of God, it is easy to doubt whether it has 
any special and abiding religious value. As thus 
conceived, the matter seems neither particularly 
new nor especially profitable. By carrying the 
abstraction far enough, we can make all religions 
look alike. It is also easy to pick out detached 
ethical precepts and deep mystical sayings from 
ancient life and literature, and especially from 
the sacred books of other religions, and thus 
finally to present those religions as rivaling 
Christianity itself. But the matter is very differ- 
ent when we consider revelation as the self-reve- 
lation of God, and when we consider its funda- 
mental and central ideas and inspirations. Then 
we first begin to get some conception of its deep 
meaning and inestimable value; and some con- 
ception also of the world-wide difference between 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 9 

the Bible and all other scriptures, between Christ 
and all other masters. The questions men most 
need to have answered are questions about God, 
his character, his purpose in our creation, and 
his relation to us. We can find out from con- 
science and experience how to live together in the 
daily round; but what does life itself mean, and 
what is its outcome to be ? With these questions 
the earnest thought of the world, the religions 
and philosophies, have busied themselves from 
the beginning ; and to these questions every 
well-instructed Christian child has a distinct and 
sublime answer which the sages and philosophers 
of the non-Christian world have sought in vain to 
find. And the deepest lack of that world is the 
lack of just those ways of thinking about God 
and his relation to us which we have learned from 
his revelation of himself. This lack is the great 
source of the failure of the heathen world, the 
source of its moral and speculative aberrations, 
of its hopelessness also, and of its blinding and 
withering superstitions. What that world most 
of all needs is the good news of God. This only 
can break the spells and disperse the illusions, 
because of which the people sit in darkness and 
the shadow of death, being bound in affiction 
and iron. They do not need the Bible considered 
as a book. They need the Christian way of 



10 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

thinking about God and his purposes concerning 
men ; and they need the Bible only as it helps 
them to this view. And it helps beyond all 
estimate in this regard. We have so wrangled 
over the geology of Genesis as utterly to miss 
the immense significance of the first verse, " In 
the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth." With that all pantheism, polytheism, and 
idolatry vanish. " No Osiris, Isis, and Set ; no 
Anu, Hea, and Bel ; no Sun, Moon, and Venus ; 
no Moloch, Rimmon, and Ashtoreth," whose 
worship defiled the nations for ages, but God, 
the Everlasting Father and Lord. The more we 
study religious history, the greater the value of 
the Bible appears. 

There has been, and still is, a great deal of 
superficial thought in judging of revelation. Since 
the comparative study of religion began, many 
have hoped, and more have feared, that Chris- 
tianity would suffer when brought face to face 
with the other great religious systems. Enthusi- 
astic students have eagerly studied the sacred 
books of the East, and have found abundant 
traces that God has never left himself without a 
witness. And they have gathered up golden 
words and profound sayings from the ancient 
sages, without giving us any hint of the moun- 
tain of chaff or dross in which they were hidden. 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 11 

In this way the impression has become quite 
general that those sacred books are full of 
ancient wisdom and religious insight, and are 
patterns of sound and wholesome moral teach- 
ing. In the popular mind, indeed, purely im- 
aginative works, like " The Light of Asia," have 
passed for literal reproductions of those vener- 
able faiths. In this way many hopes and fears, 
both equally groundless, have been raised; and 
prejudice has taken the place of scholarly study 
and criticism. Fortunately, the translation of 
the various sacred books of the race is changing 
this state of things, and is bringing the study of 
those ancient and outlying faiths back into that 
wholesome, matter-of-fact atmosphere in which 
alone it can reach any valuable and permanent 
results. Max Miiller, in the general preface to 
the translation of the Sacred Books of the East, 
calls attention to the extravagant fancies which 
have been cherished concerning the contents of 
these old books, and says : " Keaders who have 
been led to believe that the Vedas of the ancient 
Brahmins, the Avesta of the Zoroastrians, the 
Tripitaka of the Buddhists, the Kings of Confu- 
cius, or the Koran of Mohammed, are books full 
of primeval wisdom and religious enthusiasm, or 
at least of sound and simple moral teaching, will 
be disappointed on consulting these volumes." 



12 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

In another passage he says : " By the side of so 
much that is fresh, natural, simple, beautiful, 
true, they contain so much that is not only 
unmeaning, artificial, and silly, but even hideous 
and repellent." 

The comparison of the Christian Scriptures 
with the other sacred books of the world has too 
often been made in a partisan interest. Some- 
times those books have been rejected outright 
as manifest works of darkness, with the aim of 
exalting the Christian revelation. Sometimes, with 
equal unwisdom, they have been extravagantly 
praised as altogether comparable with our own 
Scriptures. But in both cases there has been over- 
sight of the fact that the central idea in any reli- 
gion is its idea of God. Hence, both parties have 
wasted time and strength over false issues. Chris- 
tian partisans have ransacked ancient history and 
literature for religious superstitions and practical 
abominations, as specimens of what man can do 
without revelation. And anti-Christian partisans 
have done the same thing in order to gather fine 
sentiments with which to confound their oppo- 
nents. Both parties were equally in error. Scat- 
tered ethical maxims and stray religious truths 
do not make a religion ; we must rather judge it 
by its general theory of things, by its thought 
of God, of creation, of man, of life, of destiny, 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 13 

and by the inspiration which it furnishes. These 
things are the essence of a religion and the root 
of its power. Different systems might have many 
ethical precepts in common and many similar ex- 
pressions of piety ; but so long as they differ in 
their fundamental aims and ideas, only the utmost 
superficiality would think of identifying them. In 
a sense religious feeling can attach itself to any- 
thing, as a fetish or totem ; but a religion for 
developed humanity, and which develops human- 
ity, must be a religion for the whole man. It 
must satisfy the intellect, the conscience, the 
affections, and must furnish the will with a 
supreme inspiration. Any religious system is 
imperfect in the measure in which it falls below 
this requirement. 

Applying this standard, we see the mighty 
gulf between the Christian and other systems in 
their adaptation to human needs. The banks of 
the stream of time are lined with religions which 
have perished because they could not keep pace 
with intellectual development ; and many of the 
Asiatic rehgions are dying before our eyes from 
this cause. The truth that is in them is wrapped 
up with so much that is puerile, stupid, and re- 
volting, that they are doomed to perish. They 
are in a worse plight in relation to conscience. 
They have so debased the thought of God, and 



14 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

have sanctioned so much of vileness, that as soon 
as conscience awakes, it revolts against them. 
And they are especially lacking in respect to any 
stimulus for noble living. Their predominant 
note is pessimism and despair. They find no 
worthy ethical purpose in creation, but only an 
endless and aimless doing and undoing, weaving 
and unweaving, without any justifying outcome. 
The supreme hope which the great Indian 
reHgions hold out for man is to escape from 
personal existence, either by absorption or 
annihilation. There is no hint of a Father in 
heaven in the Christian sense, no hint of a divine 
meaning in the world, no hint of a divine deliver- 
ance wrought out by a divine Deliverer, no hint 
of an ever-present Spirit leading souls to right- 
eousness and perfecting them in goodness, no 
hint of life eternal in which the faithful soul 
shall glorify God and enjoy him forever. To drop 
into darkness, and escape the woe and burden of 
this illusion we call our life, is their great hope 
for the race. The Christian view of God and the 
world and the meaning of life is the precise and 
exact contradiction of all this; and yet, because 
of scattered moral maxims and stray gleams of 
religious insight, many have been pleased to hold 
that Christianity has nothing new or valuable to 
offer. The superficiahty of such a view appears 



THE CHKISTIAN REVELATION 15 

as soon as we ask for the central ideas and inspi- 
rations of the religious systems. And it is to be 
desired that the admirers of the Asiatic religions 
who now and then appear among us would be 
at the pains to master those ideas before begin- 
ning their work as apostles. If we would under- 
stand Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Confucianism, 
we must study them in their basal ideas and in 
the civilizations they have made. By their fruits 
ye shall know them. 

I am in full sympathy with the desire to find 
the non-Christian religions as elevated as pos- 
sible. I have no objection even to parliaments 
of religions, provided they do not hide the facts 
behind vague and general phrases, and provided 
they escape the defihng touch of the advertising 
harpy. There is no good reason why a Christian 
should not rejoice at finding traces of God's 
presence and inspiration everywhere among men, 
especially as his own Bible teaches him that 
there is a Light which lighteneth every man that 
Cometh into the world. And for both a Christian 
and a theist it must be clear that the great non- 
Christian systems have had a place in the divine 
purpose for men. But this does not imply their 
perfection or their finality. As Judaism was the 
beginning and not the end, and would have been 
a failure if it had not merged into the broader 



16 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

thought of Christianity, so these other systems, 
at best, were only for a time. They never could 
make man perfect, or build him to his best estate. 
There is no call to blacken, and also none to 
whitewash. After all that charity or sympathy 
can truly say in their behalf, it must be admitted 
that their earlier forms were their best and purest, 
and that they have fallen below recovery. They 
have no power to save others or themselves. We 
may say, for instance, that the early Hindus set 
out on their way toward God, and that their reli- 
gious literature is the record of their God ward 
journey ; but when we consider the abominations 
of the Hindu pantheon and of the popular Hindu 
religion, we must admit that somehow or other 
they grievously missed their way. The thwarting, 
paralyzing, and defiling influences of Hindu 
society have concentrated and incarnated them- 
selves in the Hindu religion. India is socially, 
industrially, and pohtically paralyzed by her reli- 
gion. Caste is sanctified, the masses are hopeless, 
the people are divided by all manner of impass- 
able gulfs due to their religion. If the Hindu 
mind could be swept clean of all its religious 
conceptions and their place taken by the ideas of 
the Lord's Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount, 
it would be for India a blessing great beyond 
all comparison. And it is hard to see how any 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 17 

political or social or industrial progress can be 
made in India until the present religious concep- 
tions have been swept away or profoundly modi- 
fied. After all, fruit is the final test ; when any 
religious system has had a people under its influ- 
ence for ages, it may rightly be judged by its 
fruits. Tried by this standard, Asia, past and 
present, is the sufficient condemnation of the 
Asiatic religions. 

The general good nature with which the outly- 
ing religious systems are now commonly regarded 
must not lead us into overlooking these facts. As 
we have before said, if we carry the abstraction 
far enough, we may make all religions seem alike. 
Thus, we may discover that they all believe in 
God, and hence we may conclude that at bottom 
there is no difference. But this is only a verbal 
illusion, and does not remove the fact that the 
conception of God, and his purposes, and his 
relation to us, may exhibit world-wide differences 
in different religious systems. Or, again, we may 
say that all religions have an adaptation to their 
adherents, so that there is no one religion that is 
best for all ; but this too is an abstract verbalism. 
The deification of evil and superstition can never 
be sanctified, or made other than destructive, by 
such reflections. Religions may be defiled and 
defiling. Finally, under the influence of some 



18 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

vague notions of the divine immanence, we may 
say that God has revealed himself in all of these 
systems. But unless we are willing to put all 
revelations on the same plane, and to deny man 
all influence in the unfolding of religious thought 
and activity, we gain nothing from this conten- 
tion. Religious thinkers who have attained to 
any ethical insight would not be willing to look 
upon the gross immoralities and depraving abom- 
inations of many of the ethnic religions as reve- 
lations of the divine character and will. And 
when these are eliminated, we still have to admit 
that the revelation in the several systems is of 
varying degrees of adequacy and completeness. 
And then we have to inquire which of the vari- 
ous revelations brings us nearest to God, gives 
us the highest thought of God and man, of their 
mutual relations, and of the divine purpose in 
the creation of man, and furnishes the highest 
and most effective inspiration for human li^dng. 
Put in this way, the problem solves itself. 
However divine we may think the extra-Christian 
religions, the Christian religion is diviner still. 
Whatever service they may have done in the 
ruder and cruder stages of life, they are quite 
unable to make man or society perfect, or build 
them into perfection. Our sincerest admirers of 
Buddhism or Confucianism prefer to admire 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 19 

afar off. They would not care to live in a com- 
munity developed from and dominated by the 
systems in question. For it is perfectly plain that 
when the mental and moral nature is developed, 
we must make demands upon any religion which 
claims our allegiance which these systems can 
never meet. As already pointed out, a religion 
for developed humanity, and one capable of 
developing humanity, must satisfy man's entire 
nature — the intellect, the conscience, the affec- 
tions — and must furnish the will with a supreme 
end and inspiration. It is, then, right that we 
should be well-disposed toward all non-Christian 
religions, and we should be glad to recognize 
any good that may be in them ; but this must 
not lead us to overlook their imperfection and 
practical inefficiency, and the resulting neces- 
sity of replacing them by something better. As 
soon as they come into contact with our West- 
ern thought, science, and individuahsm, it be- 
comes apparent that their day is done, and that 
the final alternative will be Christianity or irre- 
ligion. 

When we compare Christianity with the out- 
lying rehgions, we feel its measureless superiority. 
We feel it equally when we compare it with the 
revelation of nature. Anti-Christian speculators 



20 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

in Christian countries have always been accus- 
tomed to emphasize this revelation, and to claim 
that it gives us all the light we need. Now, that 
there is a revelation in nature, in the mind, in 
history, the wise Christian gladly admits and 
steadfastly maintains ; but that it is so adequate 
and complete as to leave nothing more to be de- 
sired is not so clear. In a Christian community, 
where Christian thought prevails, a philosopher 
may succeed in giving reasons for a faith other- 
wise learned, and may conclude that he has de- 
duced it for himself. But this is illusory, even 
for speculative truth,which lies within the possible 
range of the reflective faculty. Thus, the unity 
of God, the doctrine without which rational 
science would perish, has come to men mainly 
through the influence of Christian teaching. 
Philosophy has followed after, and found reasons 
for the doctrine; but the doctrine itself has 
reached the mind of the modern world chiefly 
through Christian teaching, which has made 
it a fixed tradition and possession of modern 
thought. 

Still more doubtful is the revelation of nature 
with respect to the divine character and purpose. 
The difficulties that meet us here are such that of 
late years the revelation of nature has been less 
confidently appealed to, and the more earnest 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 21 

skeptics have scoffed at it, or have greeted it 
with moody and scornful laughter. A revelation 
of power or skill alone furnishes no basis for 
religion. We need, in addition, a revelation of 
moral character and of moral purpose. And here it 
is that the revelation of nature is ambiguous and 
incomplete. This fact was never felt so keenly as 
at present. The easy-going optimism of the past 
and the naive anthropomorphic interpretations of 
the world are daily growing more difficult. The 
advance of knowledge has revealed so many as- 
pects of evil and so much that we cannot ration- 
ally interpret. We consider the raven and rapine 
of nature, the apparently meaningless aspects of 
things, also, and the long ages in which fire and 
slag and slime held barren sway. Of the lower 
forms of life, how few seem to have any mean- 
ing? We look at them in amazement and aston- 
ishment, and ask ourselves. How can these things 
be? Nor is human history much more intelligible. 
For the great mass of men there has been no his- 
tory, but only animal need and craving, mostly 
unsatisfied. The many races, their alienations, 
their unending wars, their mutual slaughter, fur- 
nish a grim and difficult problem. And the few 
races which have climbed to some measure of civ- 
ilization have soon grown weary of the burden as 
something too heavy to be borne. It is hard in- 



22 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

deed to see how any one can look seriously at the 
history of India, of Egypt, of Central and West- 
ern Asia, of the nations and races that have lived 
on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, without 
great disquietude of spirit. With our Christian 
faith we can indeed get on by postponing the 
problem and falling back on trust in God, but a 
purely inductive study without such faith could 
hardly fail to "lend evil dreams." 

When we consider the general forms of nature, 
organic and inorganic, and the general facts of 
history, we are left in great uncertainty as to their 
meaning. And we are no better off when we look 
at the life of the individual. The general form of 
our life, with its marked prominence of the phy- 
sical and the animal, is itself a stumbhng-block. 
There seems to be something almost grotesque in 
this utter subjection of spiritual beings to animal 
needs. Then we note the uncertainty of our life 
and lot, the seeming accidents of health and for- 
tune, the many turnings and overturnings in 
which we can discern no plan, the things which 
have impressed men with the sense of a blind 
fate or a blinder chance, which sports with men, 
and by which our best plans are often thwarted 
and brought to naught. 

Thus in no realm does the great cosmic order 
seem to be working definitely at any intelligible 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 23 

task, least of all at any moral task. These facts 
are not incompatible with the divine wisdom 
and goodness. Our trouble with them may be 
only the shadow of our own ignorance ; yet as 
they appear they point to neither wisdom nor 
goodness. Because of our thoughtless optimism 
we have generally ignored these facts, or we 
have regarded them from the standpoint of Chris- 
tian teaching; and thus we have failed to get the 
impression of dismay which a purely logical study 
of the facts would furnish. This explains the 
pessimism which has seized upon so many earnest 
minds which have abandoned the Christian faith. 
It is definitely settled at last that whoever has 
words of eternal life, science and philosophy 
have them not. The conceptions of God which 
are necessary to love and trust must be sought 
elsewhere. It was a favorite thought with Les- 
sing, and has often been repeated, that the need 
of revelation will pass with time, as reason will 
gradually penetrate to the rational ground of all 
religious truth, and will at last stand in its own 
right. But this may be doubted for a double 
reason : First, the basal factors of the Christian 
religion are not merely rational truths to be dis- 
covered by reflection ; they are also, and more 
especially, facts to be learned by evidence. God's 
goodness and righteousness and his gracious 



24 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

purpose towards men are questions of fact to be 
answered by no introspection, but only by con- 
sulting his word and works. In the next place, 
it is very doubtful if the human mind will ever 
attain during its earthly existence to any satis- 
factory interpretation of God's methods in the 
universe. Their mystery and impenetrability grow 
more and more marked ; and the impression 
deepens that his ways are not as our ways, nor his 
thoughts as our thoughts. The problem grows 
faster than our knowledge ; and more than ever, 
for faith and trust in this awful God, do we need 
the historic revelation of God in Jesus Christ. 
Here we have, not indeed a God whom we under- 
stand, but one whom we can trust while we do 
not understand. I do not think that Christianity 
removes many, if any, of the intellectual difficul- 
ties we feel in contemplating life and the world ; 
it rather outflanks them by a revelation of God 
which makes it possible to trust and love him, 
notwithstanding the mystery of his ways, and 
which assures us that all good things are safe, 
and are moving on and up, 

Through graves and ruins and the wrecks of things, 
Borne ever Godward with increasing might. 

The great significance of the Christian reve- 
lation, then, does not lie in its contribution to 
ethics or to speculative theology, though it has 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 25 

done something in both of these realms; but 
rather in this, that back of the mystery and 
uncertainty of our own lives, back of the appar- 
ent aimlessness of much history, and back of 
the woe and horror of much more, it reveals 
God, the almighty Friend and Lover of men, 
the Chief of burden-bearers, and the Leader of 
all in self-sacrifice. Over the seething chaos there 
broods a Spirit divine ; and from everlasting to 
everlasting there stretches a broad bow of promise 
and of light. 

Such is the Christian revelation — a revelation 
of God, of his righteousness, his love, his gra- 
cious purpose, and his gracious work. As such 

it is 

The fountain light of all our day, 
A master light of all our seeing. 

It is a great spiritual force at the head of all 
the beneficent and inspiring forces which make 
for the upbuilding of men and the bringing in 
of the kingdom of God. If we would know some 
things we must turn to nature, or to history, or 
to psychology ; but if we would know what God 
is, and what he means for men, we must come to 
the Christian revelation, especially as completed 
in Jesus Christ. Here only do we find the Father 
adequately revealed. 

The system of Christian thought about God 



26 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

and man and their mutual relations, when seen 
in its simplicity, is worthy of all acceptation. If 
it be a dream it is the greatest dream humanity 
has ever dreamed. Our hope for ourselves and 
for our race is inseparably bound up with it. If 
God be such a being as Christianity declares, we 
have a sure foundation for the highest faith and 
the noblest endeavor. But we often fail duly to 
appreciate this revelation, or we make ourselves 
needless difficulties in understanding it, because 
of sundry misconceptions; which we now pro- 
ceed to consider. 

As the world is very different from what we 
should expect a work of perfect wisdom, power, 
and goodness would be, so God's revelation of 
himself is very different in its mode and instru- 
ments from what we should have expected. And 
we have commonly come to the study of the sub- 
ject with various preconceived notions concern- 
ing revelation, and these have proved scarcely 
less disastrous in bibhcal study than similar 
notions have proved in physical science. It is 
very easy, in an abstract way, to determine what 
revelation must be, and these abstract determi- 
nations often make it difficult to perceive what 
revelation really is. And we are not willing to 
allow it to be what examination shows it to be ; 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 27 

but we insist on wresting it into some conformity 
with our preconceived notions of what revelation 
must be. 

The simplest and clearest notion of revelation 
identifies it with the Bible, and makes it the 
Word of God. Various reasons, historical and 
exegetical, unite in recommending this concep- 
tion. This Word, again, was given by inspira- 
tion, and this, in turn, is most easily conceived 
as dictation. When the things thus dictated were 
written down and gathered up into a single 
volume, they formed the one infallible Word of 
God. This notion is level to the lowest under- 
standing, and a great many biblical phrases 
readily lend themselves to it. With such a con- 
ception it was only natural to expect to find 
everything in the book as perfect and complete 
as its divine author. Infallibility was a neces- 
sary consequence. To admit error of any kind 
was to abandon the Bible altogether. For a long 
time it was held that even the language was per- 
fect ; and the suggestion that the Greek of the 
New Testament was not classical was resented as 
little less than heresy. It certainly was not to be 
thought of, that the Holy Spirit did not write as 
good Greek as mortal men, and heathens at that. 

This conception of a dictated book has always 
ruled popular theological thought, and for mani- 



28 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

fest reasons. The notion of a revelation through 
history, through the moral life of a community, 
through the insight of godly men, is compara- 
tively difficult and uncertain. It is not so easy to 
see where and how the Divine comes in, or how to 
distinguish it from the human. It admits, too, of 
no such definite statutory formulation, and it can- 
not be so readily used in dogmatic construction, 
and especially in dogmatic f ulmination. A formal 
verbal statement, on the other hand, is something 
sure and steadfast. It is convenient and portable 
also, and when prefaced by " thus saith the Lord," 
it cannot fail to put to flight the armies of the 
aliens. Nevertheless, this conception is a mistake, 
and a great part of our difficulties in this field are 
due to its implicit or explicit presence. For clear- 
ing up this matter, a word is needed concerning 
inspiration. 

That the Scriptures are the product of inspi- 
ration is the firm faith of the Church. The au- 
thors were not left to their own devices, or to the 
bHnd gropings of their own understanding ; but 
they spoke and wrote under the actuating influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit. So much clearly appears 
from a study of the writings themselves, and more 
especially from a comparison of them with the 
other sacred writings of the race. This divine 
influence and guidance are more manifest to-day 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 29 

than ever before ; for we see more clearly how 
difficult was the problem to be solved. While other 
writers lost themselves in wild cosmogonies, and 
fictitious science, and fantastic dreams, the writers 
of the Bible maintain the most extraordinary so- 
berness and reticence on these points. The errors 
into which they may have fallen are comparatively 
few in any case, and they in no way defeat the 
revelation of God at which the writers aim. The 
unique character of the Scriptures in this respect 
can be appreciated only by comparison with the 
other bibles of the race. 

So, then, we may say that the Scriptures were 
inspired ; that is, were written by men who were 
moved and enlightened by the Holy Spirit. But 
this does not mean that they were dictated by an 
Infallible Intelligence. The presence of inspira- 
tion is discernible in the product; but the mean- 
ing and measure of inspiration cannot be decided 
by abstract reflection, but only by study of the 
outcome. What inspiration is must be learned from 
what it does. We have no apriori conception of 
inspiration from which we can infer its essential 
nature. Neither are we permitted to say that in- 
spiration always means the same thing; for inspi- 
ration may have different degrees. For instance, 
the degree of inspiration necessary to write the 
Book of Esther would be very different from that 



30 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

needed for the prophecies of Isaiah or the Paul- 
ine epistles. Hence we must not determine the 
character of the books from the inspiration, but 
must rather determine the nature of the inspi- 
ration from the books. 

But how can there be inspiration without dic- 
tation? To this question there is no theoretical 
answer. The influence of one human mind upon 
another is a mystery ; much more so is the influ- 
ence of the Divine Spirit upon the human spirit. 
We can only fall back here upon the analogies 
of our own experience. In a perfectly real sense 
a teacher may inspire his pupils, or a philosopher 
his disciples, so that they remain themselves and 
yet are lifted to an insight to which of themselves 
they would never attain. We cannot tell how it 
is done, but the fact is familiar. In like manner, 
a preacher is often spoken of as inspired when he 
attains to some special insight or deep spiritual 
fervor. And the inspiration may well be real ; but 
it does not turn the man into the passive instru- 
ment of a power above him ; it rather lifts the man 
himself to a higher power. It is inspiration, not 
dictation. It is in accordance with these analo- 
gies that we must think of the inspiration of the 
Scriptures. God did not dictate the Scriptures, 
he inspired them; and that in such a way that 
the authors were at once themselves and also at- 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 31 

tained to a higher insight than was possible to their 
unaided powers. 

But now it will be said that this is very loose 
indeed. Such a conception of inspiration does well 
enough for vague popular speech^ but it is all 
too uncertain for the source of revelation. This 
demands something more definite and objective, 
something which can be fixed in a scientific 
definition ; and this must finally be found in the 
notion of infallible dictation. 

Without doubt this notion of dictation is the 
only conception of inspiration which is perfectly 
clear; all others shade away into indefiniteness 
and refuse to be fixed in a hard-and-fast defini- 
tion. But equally without doubt this notion is ab- 
solutely untenable when applied to the received 
canon of the Old and New Testaments. Let us 
admit the literal truth of the passages where it is 
said that the word of the Lord came to prophets 
or apostles and which they were commanded to 
write down, it is still clear that this is very far 
from establishing the dictation of all the books of 
the Old and New Testaments. That some prophetic 
vision came to Isaiah as the word of the Lord may 
well be believed ; but there is no connection be- 
tween this fact and the claim that the books of 
Chronicles or the books of Esther and Kuth were 
written at the dictation of the Holy Spirit. The 



32 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

doctrine of dictation, as held by traditional theo- 
logy, applies to the whole canon ; and this doctrine 
is groundless. The Scriptures themselves make 
and warrant no such claim. Nothing would reveal 
the absurdity more strikingly than the attempt 
to conceive the Holy Spirit as the real author 
of the various utterances of the many speakers 
and writers. Speaking in their own person, they 
are intelligible ; conceived as masks through which 
the Holy Spirit speaks, nothing could well be more 
puzzling and unprofitable. In the introduction to 
the Gospel of Luke and to the Book of Acts, the 
writer sets forth his reasons for writing and his 
acquaintance with the facts, like any other histor- 
ical writer, and he shows no suspicion of being an 
amanuensis of the Holy Spirit. To such confu- 
sion the notion of dictation inevitably leads us ; 
and when we lay aside this notion, there is nothing 
left but the vaguer yet more manageable notion 
of inspiration. 

The traditional doctrine of inspiration, we have 
said, was not formed upon any study of the Scrip- 
tures themselves, but rather upon apriori assump- 
tions as to what inspiration must be. To this may 
be added sundry influences from non-Christian 
sources. The Greeks and Romans had their rev- 
elations through various oracles ; and these were 
commonly pathological performances in which the 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 33 

oracle raved and babbled under the influence of 
the " divine afflatus," and supposedly with little 
or no knowledge of what was said. The words 
spoken were words of the god. This conception 
was carried over into Christianity by some of the 
early Christian writers on inspiration. This view, 
together with the apriori assumption referred to, 
for a long time shut up the Church to the notion 
of a dictated book, of which the writers were only 
"the inspired penmen" while God himself was 
the real author, no matter whose name might ap- 
pear as the writer. The Helvetic Formula pushed 
this dependence so far as to make words, letters, 
and punctuation marks alike inspired of God. 

A very slight acquaintance with the text dis- 
poses of such a doctrine. If the Holy Spirit were 
the sole author of all the accounts we should 
expect them to agree, which of course is not the 
case. But it may occur to us that there is an im- 
portant element in inspiration which has not yet 
been mentioned, and which is really the essential 
thing. This is infallibility. Dictation is impor- 
tant only as securing infallibility; and we may 
give it up, provided the infallibility is retained. 
The psychological state of the Scripture writers, 
then, is not a matter of supreme importance. They 
may have spoken or written in a state of ecstasy, 
or they may have received direct dictation from 



34 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

the Holy Spirit, or they may have been left to 
choose their own thoughts and words according 
to their mental type and experience, subject of 
course to the ^^supervision" or "superintendence" 
of the Spirit ; but however this may have been, 
the product of their inspiration must have been 
infallible if we are to have any confidence in it. 
If this be denied we might as well give up inspi- 
ration altogether. Accordingly we find, in the 
complicated and varying theories of inspiration 
which have been held in the Church, this notion 
of infalHbility commonly underlying them, at 
least for all essential factors of revelation. In 
this claim all church authorities have generally 
agreed. The late Pope and the present Pope have 
both formally denounced the notion that there 
can be any error in Scripture, and Protestant 
leaders have generally done the same. 

Abstractly considered, this seems conclusive. 
A fallible guide would seem to be none, or worse 
than none. We must, then, consider the supposed 
necessity of maintaining the infallibility of the 
Scriptures. 

If we should discuss this question of inerrancy 
abstractly, it would be easy to make out a strong 
case for the necessity of the doctrine. We might 
say that the divine origin of the Scriptures im- 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 35 

plies it, or that without it we should be all at 
sea, and might as well have no revelation. But 
we should be very careful in pressing such reason- 
ing ; for, if sound, it can only result in the over- 
throw of all faith. It is beyond any question that 
we have no inerrant Scriptures at present, whether 
in the original languages or in the later versions. 
Let any one who insists on inerrancy on the 
basis of such abstract reasonino^ come out of his 
closet long enough to consider the condition of 
the manuscripts, early and late, and the varia- 
tions of the versions, ancient and modern; and 
unless he be given over he will see that strict 
inerrancy in any Scriptures we have, or ever can 
have, is a fiction. If, again, he insist on historic 
inerrancy at least, let him suspend his insistence 
until he has made the books of Chronicles and 
the books of Kings tell accurately the same story. 
Considerations of this kind have led many to 
abandon the claim of inerrancy in the existing 
Scriptures, and to confine it to "some original 
manuscript." But if inerrancy is a matter of 
practical importance, this view leaves us with- 
out the necessary guidance. Some original man- 
uscript, which has vanished beyond any hope of 
recovery, was infallible ; but the existing manu- 
scripts and versions are not. What gain, then, do 
we get from the vanished infalHbility ? We may 



36 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

possibly fancy that we have saved the divine 
veracity, but for practical purposes we are as 
badly off as ever. 

And even if we had an infallible manuscript, 
which had descended from the earhest time, of 
how much use would it be to us without certain 
other infallibilities which not even the dullest 
would venture to claim? If infallibility be neces- 
sary, we should need not merely to reproduce 
ancient words, but ancient modes of thought and 
feeling as well. Unless our translators did this, 
we should still be exposed to error. And after 
the ancient words had been reproduced in exact 
modern equivalents, they would next need to be 
understood. Even those who have agreed in the 
inerrancy of the Scriptures have had disagree- 
ment enough in their interpretation. Theology, 
past and present, sufficiently illustrates this fact. 
The nature of language itself makes it impossi- 
ble that there should be any hard-and-fast objec- 
tive interpretation. The necessarily metaphorical 
nature of all language applying to spiritual rela- 
tions bars the way. 

Thus the original infallibility with which we 
started disperses and loses itself in the general 
uncertainties of translation and of language itself, 
and in the wranglings of theologians. We could 
hardly be worse off with any permissible admis- 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 37 

sion of errancy than we actually have been with 
the stiff est doctrine of inerrancy. Even when 
pieced out with the doctrine of an infallible 
churchj inerrancy has not saved us from divers 
winds of doctrine in the infallible church itself. 
Maintainers of inerrancy, then, ought to be put 
under bonds to tell us, in the face of the unde- 
niable facts of biblical study and theological his- 
tory, what their view has done for us, or can do 
for us ; especially now that the " original manu- 
script " is lost. 

Well, then, we have no revelation ; and every 
one is free to do as he pleases with the Scrip- 
tures ! This is a " logical consequence " of admit- 
ting errancy which cannot be evaded, and which, 
when properly flourished before the appropriate 
audience, is always effective. In reply we should 
say that this is a piece of closet logic, a verbal 
intimidation, resulting from considering the sub- 
ject in an abstract and academic fashion. It is 
the exact parallel of a similar objection in the 
theory of knowledge. We may ask if our senses 
ever deceive us; and the answer must be. Yes. 
And then we may continue, with true closet logic : 
Well, if our senses may deceive us, how do we 
know that they do not always deceive us? And 
the answer must be that we cannot tell. And 
then, of course, the conclusion is drawn that 



38 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

we have no standard for distinguishing truth 
from error, and that skepticism overwhelming is 
upon us. 

Now academically this is all right. This prob- 
lem admits of no abstract theoretical solution. If 
we stay in the closet we can argue forever^ and 
draw the most fearful logical consequences. But 
the problem solves itself in practice. We know 
both that the senses deceive us and that they help 
us to most valuable knowledge. We find out that 
they can thus help us, not by theorizing about 
them, but by using them. 

The application to the case before us is manifest. 
The abstract problem, how an imperfect record 
can yet be an authority, admits of no theoretical 
solution. Like the problem of knowledge, it must 
be solved in practice. The value of the Bible must 
be determined, not by abstract theories of what 
it must be, but rather by study of what it proves 
itself to be in the reHgious life of the world. And 
tested in this way, nothing is clearer than its 
supreme significance. Whatever spots we find on 
it, it still remains the sun. 

And thus it appears how barren and practi- 
cally irrelevant is the abstract question as to the 
inerrancy of the Bible. As already said, if the 
doctrine is important we are in a bad way, be- 
cause we have no inerrant Bible at present. If we 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 39 

grant the doctrine, we can make nothing of it; 
and we are as badly off with it as without it. But 
these manifest and palpable facts are hidden from 
us through the deceit of closet discussion, whereby 
we attempt to decide what must be, instead of in- 
quiring what is. The doctrine is really of no practi- 
cal interest. It owes its supposed importance to an 
abstract and academic treatment, which overlooks 
the concrete facts of the case and confuses itself 
with drawing fictitious "logical consequences." 
We meet all such difficulties by coming out of 
the closet and looking at the concrete facts. And 
then many a thing which may be difficult in the- 
ory is found perfectly simple in practice. Plato 
expounded the abstract impossibility of motion ; 
and Diogenes refuted him by walking up and 
down before him. Concrete matters must be con- 
cretely tested ; and abstract objections may often 
be removed by walking. 

These misconceptions of the Bible, and the 
abstract and verbal discussions thence resulting, 
have greatly tended to obscure the meaning and 
to hinder the acceptance of the divine revela- 
tion. We have supposed ourselves bound to 
maintain the infallibility of the Bible, to find a 
revelation in every detail, and to defend the 
divineness of all that is attributed to God. In 



40 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

truth, the revelation consists in what we have 
learned concerning God, his character, and his 
purposes ; and the revelation is mainly made by 
a great historical movement. Of this movement 
the Bible is at once the product and the histori- 
cal and literary record. The truth of the revela- 
tion depends on the general truth of the history, 
and not at all on the infallibility of the record. 
But we identify the record and the revelation, 
and make ourselves additional difficulties by a 
hard-and-fast theory of our own invention con- 
cerning the inspiration of the record. In this way 
the Bible itself has often been made an obstacle 
to the acceptance of the revelation. This is espe- 
cially the case when ignorant ark-savers, without 
suspicion that the Bible is a literature and a 
library, and having never so much as heard of 
the history of the canon, begin to flourish such 
phrases as the " Word of God," as if all questions 
were settled thereby. What such persons believe 
about the Bible amounts to as little as what 
Brother Jasper believed about astronomy. From 
the same confusion of the record and the revela- 
tion even scholars have often lost all sense of 
perspective and of relative values, and often 
have missed the good news of God altogether in 
disputes about dates, authorship, and swarms of 
insignificant details ; so that we cannot see the 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 41 

great Christian facts from being taken up with 
the question whether Moses wrote the account of 
his own death, or whether the dead man really 
did come to life when his corpse touched the 
bones of the Prophet Elisha, or whether the lost 
axe really did swim when the prophet threw a 
stick into the water. And when we discuss the 
evidences of revelation we proceed in an abstract 
and ineffective way. We begin with a scholastic 
discussion of miracles and prophecy, and seek 
to establish the truth of revelation by these ab- 
stract considerations. 

Now, this is inverted in every way, and we 
need to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. 
We must see that the revelation consists essen- 
tially in the new ideas concerning God and his 
will for men, and that all else — the history and 
the writing — are but means of setting forth and 
preserving these ideas. The Church was Chris- 
tian long before it had the Bible, as the Christian 
ideas long preceded the completion of the biblical 
canon. The Church is Christian because of the 
effective presence of these ideas, not because of 
its doctrine of Scripture. And we must also see 
that any fruitful and convincing discussion of 
revelation for us must proceed from its funda- 
mental ideas, and from its actual presence and 
power in the world. Miracle and prophecy can 



42 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

never furnish a satisfactory starting-point now- 
adays for such a discussion. These things are too 
far away to affect us. Even when we think we 
believe them, we at once perceive that we do so 
only because of their connection with a great 
historical order now existing. If Christianity 
were not a world-power, a great spiritual force 
here and now, its origin would be a matter of 
profound indifference, and nothing that hap- 
pened thousands of years ago would ever make 
it credible to us. We should not even take the 
trouble to deny it; we should ignore it. But 
when we find it to be such a power ; when we 
trace its progress, like a mighty gulf-stream, 
through the ocean of human history ; when we 
compare its literature with that of other religious 
systems, — then we have a great historical and 
psychological problem for solution, and we find 
no adequate solution except in the insight that 
God has been revealing himself and establishing 
a divine kingdom in the earth. The present fact 
accords with the ancient history, and the ancient 
history throws light upon the present fact. It is 
their harmony and reciprocal implication, and the 
moral and spiritual grandeur of the emerging sys- 
tem, upon which our conviction finally rests. In 
this large way the doctrine of Scripture and the 
evidences of Christianity must be discussed, if 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 43 

any valuable result is to be reached. We must 
pass from abstract and scholastic discussions of 
a book to the concrete discussion of the Christian 
history and outcome. 

Into such a discussion the question of biblical 
inerrancy need not enter at all. We need only 
consider the general truthfulness of the record. 
Moreover, the movement is to be studied as a 
whole; not only in its crude beginnings, but also 
in its outcome. The significance of the early 
stages of the revealing movement is not to be 
discerned by any abstract study of them or of 
their supernatural attendants, but rather by what 
has historically come out of them. Taken by 
themselves, they are crude enough. Taken ab- 
stractly, they are easily made to seem absurd. 
Taken without reference to what has grown out 
of them, they appear worthless. But taken his- 
torically, and in connection with the system of 
which they are a part, they are seen in their deep 
significance. 

There is a good deal of logical delusion at this 
point on the part of both radicals and conserva- 
tives. On the one hand, we often fancy that the 
inerrancy of the Bible is the great affirmation of 
Christianity; and, on the other, we fancy that if 
we show errors of any kind, we have overthrown 
Christianity. In both cases we blunder. Chris- 



44 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

tianity does not affirm an infallible Bible, but a 
self-revealing God. It holds that God was in the 
historical movement out of which the Bible came, 
and in it in such a way that out of it we have 
won a supremely valuable knowledge of God. 
Whatever else was or was not there, God was 
there, guiding the movement for his own self- 
revelation. This is the true and only Christian 
faith in this matter. And this faith is not afPected 
by the discovery of error and legend in the Scrip- 
tures. If we admit their existence, we also have 
to admit that the great, fruitful, living, and life- 
giving ideas concerning God and his purposes 
have come to us along this historical line. The 
spots on the sun have not hindered its shining. 
However we insist on the presence of mythical 
and unhistorical matter in the Bible, it has not 
prevented God's highest revelation of himself. 
This is the treasure which the vessel of Scripture, 
however earthen, demonstrably contains. What 
the Christian thinker should maintain is the 
divine presence and guidance in the reveahng 
movement as a whole. He need not concern him- 
self about details, whether for better or for worse. 
All we can insist upon is, that the error, the 
legend, the myth, if there be such, shall not ob- 
scure the purpose of the whole — the revelation 
of God. And the objector also, if he wishes to 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 45 

say anything to the purpose, should fix his atten- 
tion on the central ideas, and not on details. The 
idea of an historical movement for the self-reve- 
lation of God is the great supernatural factor in 
the case, and this is not disposed of by any criti- 
cism of particulars. The essential Christian thought 
is of a world with God in it, of humanity with 
God in it, of history with God in it, of a great 
world movement from God through humanity to 
God again, where God is all and in all. In the 
presence of a great thought like this, it seems 
little less than intellectual indecency to make an 
issue over the speaking ass, or the talking ser- 
pent, or the rib that was made into a woman, 
whether to affirm or to deny. 

By thus separating the religious system of 
ideas from questions of date, authorship, and 
questions of textual record, we may remain Chris- 
tians in spite of the higher critics. Some of the 
critics have done wild work, and criticism has some- 
times run to leaves without bearing any valuable 
fruit. The polychrome edition of the Bible, for in- 
stance, its minute partition of the text and even of 
texts, shows a faith beyond anything in Israel. Any 
one with a sense of logical responsibility and with 
a knowledge of the hmitations of the evidence in 
the case knows that this pretended accuracy is a 
vagary of the imagination. But the general results 



46 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of critical study have done only good and not harm. 
It is no longer permitted to teach that the Bible 
was infallibly dictated, or that the several works 
were written down once for all by the men whose 
names they bear, and were never revised after- 
wards ; but the Bible is no less profitable as reve- 
lation of God than before. Only now, instead of 
a simple dictation or single composition, we have 
an historical process, and the complex religious 
thought and consciousness of the ancient Church. 
But now it will be asked again. How can a 
book containing error be trusted at all? This is 
that academic difficulty which arises from a closet 
discussion of the subject. We have already re- 
ferred to it in treating of the infallibility of the 
Bible. We recur to it again in the hope that we 
may now be better able to discern its purely ver- 
bal and scholastic character. The same question 
may be asked concerning the use of our faculties, 
or our trust in any evidence or testimony. All of 
these things are affected with fallibility, and if 
we should attempt to find an abstract standard 
which should warrant our trust in our faculties or 
in one another, we should only land ourselves in 
universal skepticism. But when, instead of theo- 
rizing about our faculties, we use them, we get 
on very comfortably. The problem which is in- 
soluble in theory, solves itself in practice. 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 47 

In fact^ the general problem of the criterion of 
knowledge, in whatever field, is practical rather 
than speculative. Academic discussion is futile 
and barren. In both religion and philosophy there 
has been a deal of abstract theorizing about the 
ultimate standard of truth or authority, as if there 
were some simple standard which, by external 
application, would reveal the truth. But there is 
no such standard. The mind itself, alert and 
critical, and with all its furniture of experienced 
life, is the only standard, and this can never be 
brought into any single and compendious expres- 
sion. The mind has no standard of certainty, but 
it is certain about various things. Practical cer- 
tainty is all we can hope for in concrete matters ; 
and this is born, not of closet speculation, but of 
actual contact with reality. Concerning this cer- 
tainty we can always raise formal doubts and 
cavils; but they disappear in practice. And any 
one who will use the Scriptures in this practical 
way, and with the aim of learning how to think 
about God and his relations to us and his purposes 
concerning us, will have no difficulty in discern- 
ing their great religious value, however much 
of mythical and unhistorical matter they may be 
thought to contain. 

This insight into the practical nature of 
certainty is becoming general in the speculative 



48 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

world, and marks a very important step forward. 
The professional skeptic finds his occupation 
going, if not gone; for his objections have com- 
monly been of the abstract, academic type, and 
these are now seen in their perennial barrenness 
and fatuity. It will be a great gain when the same 
insight becomes general in the religious world. 
The search for this abstract, infallible standard, 
and the claim to possess It, have caused, and still 
cause, no little confusion. That there is no such 
thing is manifest, and that it would harm rather 
than help, if we had it, is equally clear. A stand- 
ard which left no room for choice, for love and 
loyalty, would defeat the moral ends of life. The 
heart and will have nothing to do with the accept- 
ance of the multiplication-table, and no spiritual 
truth would have any value which could be thus 
accepted. 

Parallel to this question of a standard, and 
partly coincident with it, is the question of author- 
ity in religion. Abstractly considered, it seems 
evident that without some final authority we must 
be all at sea. Practically considered, it is equally 
plain that the mass of men must live by author- 
ity in religion, as in everything else. The great 
majority of unbelievers as well as of believers 
are such by hearsay and authority, and not by 
any real insight or understanding. The form of 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 49 

life and its development make this necessary. 
Children, of course, cannot think for themselves; 
and from the lack of time and faculty the case 
is much the same with most men. Authority, 
imitation, and social contagion are the great 
sources of actual belief. These general facts 
make confusion possible; and the possibility has 
been abundantly realized. Of course no one im- 
agines that authority makes anything true ; but 
it is not an irrational supposition that authority 
can declare a thing to be true, so that because 
of our faith in the authority we can accept the 
thing declared, even when we do not clearly see 
the reasons for ourselves. In such cases authority 
is only a means for giving ignorance the benefit 
of knowledge, which it could not reach or hold 
of itself. 

But when we come to apply these consider- 
ations to religion, confusion sets in again. Some 
wiU have it that the Church is the seat of author- 
ity; others find it in the Scriptures, and still 
others find it in reason and conscience. Abstractly 
considered, quite an argument could be made for 
each of these positions. Has not the Church, it 
might be asked, historically been the pillar and 
ground of the truth ? Could Christian truth itself 
long survive the decay of the institution ? But 
equally it might be pointed out that without the 



50 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

constant appeal and return to the Scriptures the 
Church itself is sure to go astray ; and much 
historical evidence could be adduced in support 
of this claim. 

Finally, it might be urged that reason and 
conscience are the final court of appeal; and 
much might be said to prove it. Martineau wrote 
a large volume, the weakest of all his works, in 
defense of this view. But all of these positions are 
abstract and partial. They are cases of the fallacy 
of "either, or," whereas the truth is "both, and." 
Practically, there is a measure of truth in each 
of these views; but practically, again, the whole 
truth is found only in all three taken together. 
The stiffest doctrine of Scripture inerrancy has 
not prevented warring interpretations ; and those 
who would place the seat of authority in reason 
and conscience are forced to admit that outside 
illumination may do much for both. In mathe- 
matics the final seat of authority for each learner 
is most certainly in his reason; and yet without 
the teacher, this reason, which testeth all things, 
would not D^et far in most cases. Much more is 
this true in religion. Sabatier has written a very 
able work on "Religions of Authority," which 
religions are contrasted, to their discredit, with 
the "religion of the Spirit"; but in his zeal 
against authority, Sabatier fails to notice that 



THE CHKISTIAN REVELATION 61 

historically authority has been and is a very neces- 
sary fact in religious development. 

But, on the other hand, it is equally plain 
historically that book and church have had to 
yield again and again to the growing spiritual 
insight of the religious community. The stoutest 
verbalist and ecclesiastic to-day would not toler- 
ate things on which once they vehemently in- 
sisted, but which have been outgrown, although 
the texts once relied on still exist. "If a man 
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is 
withered; and men gather them, and cast them 
into the fire, and they are burned." This was 
long the standard text on the manner of dealing 
with heretics, but it has long since gone out of com- 
mission. "Compel them to come in" is another 
text that did great service in the past, but has 
been humanized in modern times. Back in the 
fifteenth century there was a great controversy 
whether the blood of Christ that was shed on the 
cross lost its hypostatic union with the Divine 
Logos and its world-saving quality while it lay 
on the ground at the foot of the cross, and a 
great debate was held at Rome for the decision 
of the question. Such a controversy is unthink- 
able to-day, even in the most orthodox circles. 
All interpretations of words must be functions 
of the interpreters, as well as of dictionaries and 



52 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

grammars. When Caliban studies natural the- 
ology he finds Setebos, who is simply Caliban 
enlarged. When Caliban interprets Scripture 
he does the same thing. Plainly, no mechanical 
religious standards can escape appealing to the 
complex life of the religious community as the 
real interpreter and judge of the standards them- 
selves, and of their permissible meaning and 
application. Apart from this, the old gibe is 
literally true of the Bible : — 

This is the book where each his doctrine seeks, 
And this the book where each his doctrine finds. 

Of course, if one takes a mechanical view of 
salvation, and supposes that our safety depends 
on some accuracy of ritual j or some exact ortho- 
doxy of belief, such a person needs an absolute 
standard or authority, in order to make sure that 
no mistake has been made and the requirement 
punctually fulfilled. Such notions obtain in many 
non-Christian religions, and they are by no means 
unknown in Christian history ; but they are non- 
existent for one who has reached a moral and 
spiritual conception of Christianity. 

In all this polemical discussion of the Bible, 
one commonly finds on both sides oversight of 
the fact that the great significance of the Bible 
is to help men to God. This is its religious use 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 53 

and this is the main thing with the majority of 
Christians. It is their book of religion. The ques- 
tions of criticism have no existence for them ; 
but they read, — " The Lord is my shepherd ; I 
shall not want." " God is our refuge and strength, 
a very present help in trouble." " This is a faith- 
ful saying . . . that Christ Jesus came into the 
world to save sinners." "For we know if the 
earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved, we 
have a building of God, a house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens." " Let not your 
heart be troubled ... In my Father's house are 
many mansions ... I go to prepare a place for 
you." On passages like these the Christian world 
has lived, and in the strength of them a multitude 
of saints have died. They knew nothing of criti- 
cism, higher or lower; but they found God in the 
Bible, and God found them in the Bible, and 
they knew whom they had believed. No one is 
fit to give an opinion on the value of the Scrip- 
tures who overlooks this religious use of them, 
and the fact that by this use the great majority 
of God's saints have been nourished and are still 
nourished. It is to explain this fact that devout 
scholars have long spoken of the testimonium 
sjnritus sancti as the great warrant of Scripture. 
A book that did not find us, to use the expres- 
sion of Coleridge, would not long command our 



54 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

attention or assent; but a book that does find 
us in the deepest places and springs of life will 
always command the allegiance of those who 
seek to live in the spirit. No errors of science 
or history will diminish its religious value for 
the devout and religious heart. Of course, we 
all understand the moral imperfection of the 
Old Testament. A great many things jar on us 
as falling short of the spirit of Christ, for 
instance, the imprecatory psalms. And yet our 
fundamental human needs and religious aspira- 
tions often find perfect and permanent expression 
in the words of prophet and psalmist, so that we 
turn to those words as humanity's classical reli- 
gious utterance, and as being just as fresh and 
living to-day as when they were uttered twenty- 
five hundred years ago. " The Lord is my shep- 
herd " ; " God is our refuge and strength ; " Bless 
the Lord, my soul " ; " Unto thee, Lord, will 
I lift up my soul " ; " The Lord is my Light " ; — 
these are specimens of the Old Testament as a re- 
ligious book, and as expressing humanity's search 
after God in all its perennial moods and phases 
of triumph and depression, of joy and sorrow 
and misery. These words come to us across the 
ages, and they pierce us through and through 
with their insight into human needs in all ages ; 
and this gives them their imperishable vitality. 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 55 

The possibility of combining effective religious 
teaching with error as to matter of fact may 
be seen in the following verse from Addison's 
hymn : — 

What though in solemn silence all 
Move round the dark terrestrial ball ? 
What though no real voice nor sound 
Amid the radiant orbs be found ? 
In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice ; 
Forever singing as they shine 
*' The hand that made us is divine." 

The false astronomy of the first two lines does 
not diminish the religious value of the hymn. 
Had this verse occurred in a psalm, the tradition- 
alists would have dealt with it after this fashion : 
Some would have maintained the geocentric 
theory as a divine revelation, and would have 
anathematized all other views. Others, longing to 
reconcile religion and science, would have held 
that the writer really knew the true theory, as it 
is not to be thought of that an " inspired penman " 
should be in error, but that, though knowing 
better, he described the fact as it appears. Thus 
the divine veracity and the infallibility of the 
Scripture writer would be saved. And still others 
might hold, on the warrant of common sense, 
that whether in the psalm or in the hymn, the 
religious value is independent of astronomic 



66 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

theory. Of course, the traditional rationalist 
would see nothing but the bad astronomy ; all 
else would fall upon the blind spot of his intellect. 

In the traditional discussion of revelation the 
antithesis of natural and supernatural has played 
a great part, and has been the source of much con- 
fusion. This antithesis has played a great part in 
the traditional discussion of revelation, and has 
been the source of much confusion. The tradition- 
alist has commonly charged those who differ from 
him with denying the supernatural, and with 
attempting a purely naturalistic interpretation of 
the Bible. With him a variety of schemes pass 
for " bald naturalism.'' It is well to clear up our 
thought on this subject. 

Without doubt there has been a deal of natu- 
ralism at one time and another which was " bald," 
and even worse. Such is the naturalism which 
assumes that there is a blind and impersonal sys- 
tem, called Nature, which does a great variety of 
unintended things on its own account, so that 
they represent no divine thought or purpose, but 
are simply by-products of the natural mechanism. 
In this sense the natural excludes purpose and 
intelligence altogether, and warrants the dislike 
and fear with which popular religious thought 
regards it. This conception of the natural grows 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 57 

up spontaneously in the field of sense thought 
which has not been duly chastened by criticism; 
but it is really an idol of the sense tribe. Philo- 
sophical criticism is rapidly leading to the insight 
that this nature is only a fiction of unenlightened 
thought. A painted devil may give one a turn, 
if supposed to be real ; but it becomes harmless 
when seen in its true nature. Critical thought 
will not hear of an independent or self-running 
nature in any case. It follows, then, that what- 
ever nature does, represents that which it has 
been determined to do by a power beyond it. 
And if that power be intelligent, as the theist 
believes, then nature is simply doing that which 
God wills. Thus nature becomes simply the ex- 
pression of the divine thought; and all the details 
of nature's working- are as rooted in the divine 
purpose as they would be if executed by imme- 
diate fiat. And a still deeper metaphysics makes 
it doubtful if nature have any proper energy 
whatever in itself, or be anything more than 
the system of phenomena whose cause must be 
sought beyond itself. On this view there are two 
distinct questions concerning what we call nature. 
The first concerns the phenomena themselves, 
their nature, laws, and interrelations in general. 
The second concerns the causality in which this 
system is founded or from which it proceeds. The 



58 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

first question can be answered only by inductive 
science ; the second belongs to metaphysics. 

Theism is the only answer to the second 
question. In God all that we mean by nature 
lives and moves and has its being. The independ- 
ent, self -administering nature vanishes ; and all 
that remains of nature is the phenomenal order, 
and this has its efficient ground in God. But 
this order is an important object of study. 
After we have decided that the world is God's 
work, we have still to learn what the world is, 
and how God works in it ; what the laws are 
according to which he proceeds, and how events 
are connected in space and time. Without some 
knowledge of this kind, the world would be im- 
penetrable to our intelligence ; indeed, we could 
not live at all. On this view, nature is only a 
general name for the system of phenomena ; and 
events are natural in the form and circumstances 
of their occurrence, but supernatural in their 
causality. The events which arise in accordance 
with the established laws of the system are natu- 
ral ; but the causality is supernatural throughout. 
The most familiar fact is as supernatural in its 
causation as any miracle would be. The difference 
would lie only in the phenomenal relations. 

With this result we no longer set up the 
natural and the supernatural in mutual exclusion. 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 59 

A natural event is one in which we trace famil- 
iar laws, not one in which there is no divine 
causality or purpose. And a supernatural event 
would be one which, from its form or the circum- 
stances of its occurrence, would more or less 
clearly indicate a divine presence and purpose; 
but in its causality it would be no more truly 
divine than any routine happening. In its essen- 
tial causality nothing whatever is explained by 
"known natural laws/' or by "unknown natural 
laws/' but only by the will and purpose of God. 
The most familiar event proceeds as directly 
from the divine will as the most extraordinary and 
miraculous. The causality of the natural is super- 
natural, that is, divine. The method of the super- 
natural is natural, that is, God proceeds accord- 
ing to orderly methods. But whatever happens, be 
it the maintenance of the familiar routine or mi- 
raculous departure from it, happens not of itself 
or because of some mechanical law or system, 
but because in the divine purpose and wisdom 
that is the thing demanded. And in all things 
alike God is equally present and equally near. 

Thus, in the general field of theism, we are 
compelled to distinguish the question of causality 
from the question of method; and we see that 
neither question answers the other. It is only 
through mental confusion that we can fancy that 



60 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

the decision as to causality decides the method 
of procedure, or that the discovery of method 
reveals the essential causality. Something of the 
same distinction may be made in our study of 
revelation. Our conviction that God is immanent 
in the reveahng movement does not decide the 
form of the movement; and v^e are left free to 
inquire as to this form, and to see to v^hat extent 
we can trace in it the familiar laws of history and 
of the human mind. We are all the more free to 
do this from the fact that the Scripture writers 
largely described the facts from their conception 
of the divine causality rather than from the phe- 
nomenal standpoint. It was their habit to refer 
events directly to God without mention of sec- 
ondary or intermediate causes or natural laws. 
In this they were quite right as to the causality, 
but we get a wrong impression as to the appear- 
ance of the event. There was certainly no such 
phenomenal departure from the familiar order of 
law in every case as the language of the report- 
ers would lead us, with our different habit of 
thought, to expect. If an Armada had sailed from 
Tyre for a descent on the coast of Palestine and 
had been dispersed and sunk in a storm, a Jewish 
patriot would have ascribed the result directly to 
God, and in this he might have been right; but 
if we had been there we should have seen only a 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 61 

storm. This would not indeed disprove the divine 
agency, but it would modify our conception of 
its form and method. The causality would be 
supernatural, but the method would be natural. 

Without doubt this is the case with much of 
the supernatural reported in the Scriptures. It is 
to be understood from the standpoint of causality 
and purpose rather than from the standpoint of 
phenomena. And this is said, not from any aver- 
sion to miracle, but as being the conclusion to 
which a study of the reports themselves and of 
the habits of thought of the reporters naturally 
leads. And when we come to the distinctly mirac- 
ulous, to that which breaks with the natural order 
and reveals the presence of a supernatural power, 
we may still look for some of the familiar natural 
continuities. Miracles which broke with all law 
would be nothing intelligible. We can under- 
stand miracles as signs whereby sense-bound 
minds are made aware of a divine power and 
purpose which they would otherwise miss, in 
their subjection to the mechanical movement of 
nature ; but we cannot suppose them wrought at 
random and without any reference to the ante- 
cedents and environment. Thus, if we suppose 
God should design to make a revelation of 
higher mathematical truth, even by way of mir- 
acle, it is clear that the miracle would not be 



62 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

wrought among the Patagonians or Hottentots, 
but rather there where the development of civil- 
ization and of mathematical knowledge had made 
a place for the reception of the revelation. Even 
seed divinely sown needs a prepared soil, if there 
is to be any worthy fruitage ; and thorny and 
stony ground does not furnish such a soil. 

Hence, if we admit, not only the supernatural 
but also the miraculous element in revelation, it 
is plain that the revealing movement admits of 
being studied from the natural standpoint ; that 
is, we may seek to trace the familiar laws of life 
and thought and history and human develop- 
ment in the progress and unfolding of the move- 
ment. And such study, when thought is clear, 
has no tendency to cast doubt on the supernat- 
ural source of the movement. On the other hand, 
it lends an absorbing human and rational inter- 
est to the problem, which is impossible when 
the human is paralyzed by the divine, and the 
natural is replaced by unintelligible arbitrariness. 
Naturalism, then, which displaces God and erects 
impersonal law into a mechanical and self-admin- 
istering system which knows neither itself nor its 
products, we cast out with assured conviction, and 
that on the authority of both religion and philo- 
sophy ; but naturalism, which attempts to trace 
the continuity of law and rational connection 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 63 

through all the works of God, whether in nature 
or revelation, is to be approved and welcomed. 

Such naturalism never gives a causal explana- 
tion, but it is good as far as it goes. Its nature 
and value may be seen from the following illus- 
tration: It is very common to say that a man 
is explained by his time and environment. For 
instance, Newton would have been impossible 
among the Bushmen. His work demanded the 
existence of civilization and the work of previous 
mathematicians. This is undoubted; and, in this 
sense, Newton is explained by his time and envi- 
ronment. But it would be highly superficial to 
rest in this. The time and environment were the 
same for every mathematician in England; but 
they were ineffective until combined with the 
special genius of Newton; and this is something 
which time and environment never account for. 
Hence, in studying a man's life, we certainly 
need to consider his antecedents and surround- 
ings. But the man himself is a factor apart, 
connected with these things, but not to be con- 
founded with them or deduced from them. In 
the same way the naturalistic study of revelation 
can show important preparations, historical con- 
tinuities, pyschological uniformities, rational 
harmonies ; but we reach nothing final until we 
come to the immanent, sel£-revealing God. 



64 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

The doctrine of the divine immanence, which 
is being reestablished in philosophic thought 
once more, relieves many of the traditional diffi- 
culties of this discussion. Our Western thought 
has been largely ruled by the deistic conception of 
an absentee God and a mechanical universe. The 
chief part of our intellectual puzzles in this field 
are due to this obsolete notion. Religion is really 
concerned only to affirm a divine causality and 
meaning in the world; and science is really con- 
cerned only with the method by which that caus- 
ality proceeds. These are two separate questions, 
and neither can conflict with the other. When 
this is better understood, the religious world will 
lose its fear of naturalism and its dread of law, 
because of the insight that God is working 
through the law and the order which he has 
made. And naturalism, on the other hand, will 
lose its dread of the supernatural, as it will recog- 
nize that the natural is only the form under which 
the Ever-living, Ever-acting God works his will. 

The difficulties just dealt with have a logical 
and metaphysical root. We now come to others 
of a literary and linguistic character. 

Another great hindrance to the understand- 
ing of revelation has been a misconception of the 
way in which language is used. The language 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 65 

of the Bible has been taken in a hard-and-fast, 
logical sense, as if it were evidence in a court 
of law, or a theorem in geometry, and the most 
grotesque distortions have resulted in conse- 
quence. 

We are gradually learning that there is a lan- 
guage of poetry, of conscience, of emotion, of 
aspiration, of religion, as well as a language of 
the logical understanding. And the former lan- 
guage is absurd and incredible when tested by 
the canons of the latter. Such language can be 
understood only on its own plane and by the life 
which generates it. The difference might be illus- 
trated by our speech concerning the national 
flag. One viewing the flag as a symbol of the 
nation — its life, its history, its aspirations — 
might say a great many things about it which 
would be perfectly true from the standpoint of 
sentiment and patriotic devotion, and perfectly 
absurd from the standpoint of sense. For sense, 
the flag is simply a variously-colored textile fabric ; 
but " Old Glory " is more than a textile fabric, 
though it needs life and imagination to see it. 

Now this distinction, so important in the living 
use of language and so prominent in religious 
speech, has been lamentably ignored in the study 
of the Scriptures. A mathematician once read 
"Paradise Lost," and reported that he did not see 



66 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

that it proved anything. The Scriptures have 
been studied in much the same spirit. The ten- 
dency has been to interpret every statement as a 
statutory dogma, often without any reference to 
the context, or the mode of thought of the time, 
or the writer's purpose. Of course, we are all 
familiar with the numberless petty sects based 
on such Philistine interpretation, but the blunder 
has never been lacking in the great orthodox 
bodies. The result is as absurd as would be pro- 
duced by a similar interpretation of our language 
about the national flag. 

As an illustration, consider the doctrine of 
salvation by grace through faith. Every one, of 
any moral development whatever, is ready to 
renounce all claims to merit before God on the 
ground of his own good works, and to affirm 
that, if he have any place in the divine favor, 
it must be based on the undeserved and conde- 
scending grace of God. Equally plain is it that, 
if we are to be lifted out of our low life into the 
life and fellowship of the Spirit, it must be, not 
by any mechanical performance of external rites, 
but by faith and trust in the grace which is 
above us, and in the ideal which that grace 
reveals. However we stumble or fall, we must 
believe in that, and ever struggle toward it. 
There is no deeper or more vital truth in the 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 67 

moral and religious life. But it must be under- 
stood from the side of life. It must be vitally, 
ethically, spiritually apprehended. And when this 
is not done, and this doctrine is turned into a 
scheme of salvation on the model of criminal 
law, it loses its life-giving character altogether, 
and becomes incredible and pernicious. Me- 
chanical interpretations of the atonement have 
often lent themselves to immoral conclusions, 
and nothing but a wholesome moral instinct has 
prevented it in every case. 

A history of interpretation and of interpre- 
tations would be highly instructive. From this 
mechanical way of dealing with the subject it 
has often happened that those most familiar with 
the text have made the worst blunders as to the 
meaning. Out of this confusion we are gradually 
emerging, by the discovery that the Bible is not 
merely, nor mainly, a book of dogmas, but a 
body of religious literature also, which must be 
interpreted by universal literary methods. 

A further specification of the same error about 
language is in overlooking the metaphorical na- 
ture of all language respecting invisible things. 
We have no way of expressing moral and spiritual 
truth except through some figure borrowed from 
our physical life and experience. But in such cases 
thought must be on its guard against taking the 



68 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

metaphor for the thing, or an exegesis of the met- 
aphor for an exegesis of the thing. From over- 
sight here a large part of traditional theology has 
been little more than an exegesis of misunder- 
stood metaphors. The warning which Jesus gave, 
and which indeed lies on the surface, that the 
letter killeth, and the spirit only profiteth and 
giveth life, has been ignored, and history has been 
deluged with confusion and strife and bloodshed 
in consequence. It would lead to a great clarifica- 
tion of Christian thought if there were a general 
attempt to reduce the metaphors of Christian 
speech to their net significance. We should con- 
tinue to use them thereafter, for there is nothing 
else to use ; but we should be freed from bondage 
to them, and it might also turn out that there is 
a choice in metaphors. A great many metaphors 
of ancient religious speech are unimpressive or 
distastefiil to us because the customs on which 
they rested have passed away, and we need new 
metaphors for the best expression of our thought. 
There are a few persons who say that they take 
the Bible just as it reads; but that only means 
that they take their interpretation for the Bible. 
It reads : " He rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; 
yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind." It 
reads : " He shall cover thee with his feathers, 
and under his wings shalt thou trust." Now there 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 69 

IS probably no one who f anv^ies such passages are 
to be taken as they read. Any one can see that 
such language must be taken for its meaning, and 
not for what it says ; but not every one sees that 
a great many other readings are in the same case. 
Not every one sees that, as soon as we leave the 
plane of the senses, every statement has its ele- 
ment of " wings " and " feathers." There is no 
such thing as a hard-and-fast interpretation of 
such language. What we find in it will depend 
very much on ourselves, and on the presupposi- 
tions which we bring with us. And, in general, the 
progress of theology has consisted in adjusting 
readings to those fundamental principles of good 
sense and good morals to which revelation must 
conform, if it is to be of any value for us. These 
adjustments have commonly been resisted by the 
cry that the Word of God was being made of no 
effect; but Christian thought will always insist 
on interpreting the letter of the Bible in accord- 
ance with God's spiritual revelation of himself, 
both in the Bible and in the spiritual life of his 
children. An indefinite amount of historical the- 
ology, for which many texts could be adduced, 
has drifted away forever ; not because we have 
become better grammarians and exegetes, but 
because it rested on an obsolete way of thinking 
about God and the Bible. In this way the Spirit 



70 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

leads us into truth. The realization of the spirit- 
ual life gives law to the exegesis of the Book. 

And if any one should think that this must 
tend to fatal looseness^ he may steady himself in 
two ways : First, he should remember that the 
value of the Scriptures can be determined only by 
using them in the earnest desire to know the mind 
and will of God. The frightful logical conse- 
quences which may be deduced, from this view, 
as already pointed out, result entirely from viewing 
the matter academically and abstractly ; and. sim- 
ilar conclusions can be drawn from any theory of 
knowledge whatever. But certainty is a practical 
problem, and is to be reached only in practice 
and in contact with reality. When the Scriptures 
are used in this way, they have always vindicated 
themselves, and they always will. The only persons 
who will experience any sense of loss in this view 
are the dealers in proof-texts and detailed informa- 
tion concerning the divine plans and government. 
The detailed dogmatic constructions of the past 
are no longer possible, and we have to confine our- 
selves to the more general insight into what God is 
and what he means, and to the effort on our part 
to realize the divine kingdom upon earth. For 
this, we have all the information and inspiration 
needed; and this is enough. 

And the second steadying consideration is 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 71 

found in a look into history. There has hardly 
been a step of progress — social, scientific, eco- 
nomic, religious — which has not been resisted as 
fatal to the claims of the Bible. Ignorance in 
high places has often made the Bible a menace to 
humanity, and ignorance in low places has still 
oftener made it a nuisance. This sort of thing fills 
up the pages of Buckle and Draper and Lecky 
and White. The humiliating history would be 
a profitable subject of reflection for any one who 
is inclined to resist any departure from his view 
as fatal to the Bible. Texts have been arrayed 
against astronomy, geology, political economy, 
philosophy, geography, religious toleration, anti- 
slavery, mercy to decrepit old women called 
witches, anatomy, medicine, vaccination, anaes- 
thetics, fanning-mills, lightning-rods, life-insur- 
ance, women speaking in church and going to the 
General Conference. All of these, particularly the 
last, have been declared, solemnly and with much 
emotion, to make the Word of God of none effect. 
But all of us have got beyond most of these 
things, and most of us have got beyond all of 
them ; and we count ourselves Christians still. For 
us the Word of God is not the text of the Bible, 
but that revelation of what God is and what he 
means, which he has made to us through the 
prophets and through his Son. The faith in this 



72 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

revelation has survived across many changes of 
view concerning the Bible itself, and may survive 
many more. 

Difficulty in understanding revelation often 
arises because of the failure to note its historical 
and progressive character. Being a revelation of 
deed as well as of word, it necessarily took on an 
historical form ; and being a revelation to imma- 
ture men, it was adapted to their immaturity and 
shared in their imperfection. Jesus declares that 
God allowed some things which were not good, 
because of the hardness of the people's heart. 
Paul speaks of the old ritual as beggarly begin- 
nings, and Peter calls it an intolerable yoke. But 
it was fitted to the times of ignorance at which 
God had to wink. The morality was imperfect, 
as indeed it must be so long as men are imper- 
fect. In the abnormal relations of imperfect and 
willful men the thing to be done must always 
be unideal and can only be a choice between 
evils. But we forget all this and look for the 
insight at the beginning which came only at the 
end. For us, Christ completes the revelation and 
is the only standard. 

A specification of the same objection is the 
difficulty felt with the character of the Old Tes- 
tament saints, who, it is thought, were altogether 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 73 

unworthy of divine notice, and especially of 
divine approbation. Now there is no doubt that 
many of these ancient worthies do make a sorry 
show when judged by the Christian standard, 
and that if God were a Pharisee and careful of 
his reputation with other Pharisees he would 
have nothing to do with them. But as God was 
revealing himself as a God of grace, it seems to 
be quite in the order of things that he should 
condescend to sinners. Indeed, there was no 
other class to deal with, as there is no other class 
still. The ancient saints were earthly enough, 
and so are the modern saints. That God receiveth 
sinners is the essence of the gospel. The fact 
that he bore with the imperfect saints of ancient 
times is our great encouragement to hope that 
he will bear with the imperfect saints of to-day. 
A great deal of mistaken criticism has been 
visited upon Old Testament morality from mis- 
understanding of this matter. Certainly many of 
the savageries reported are very far from ideal; 
and the reporters may often have idealized 
their origin. But in any case, so long as men 
are imperfect, their actual code, even if directly 
imposed by God himself, must share in their 
imperfection. God might conceivably have made 
men over all at once by fiat; but in that case 
it would have been a magical rather than a 



74 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

moral revelation. If lie is to develop men into 
righteousness, he must regard the laws and lim- 
itations of humanity. God is in all history, 
ancient and modern ; and if the modern were 
written from the divine standpoint, we should 
find as doubtful instruments and as unideal 
methods as we find in the ancient. As long as 
the hardness of the people's heart remains, there 
will be corresponding imperfection in the code. 
If God is in history at all, we must say that he 
wills both that a great many things bad in them- 
selves shall be done, and that they shall be done 
away with. And as for the saints, even the 
modern saint commonly looks better at a distance 
than on close inspection. The perfect has no- 
where come. The forgiveness of sins is still an 
important part of the gospel. 

We are probably better able to understand this 
matter to-day than ever before. The general con- 
ception of evolution has made us familiar with the 
thought of slow progress in human development 
as well as elsewhere. No one would now expect 
a people to step at once from savagery to civil- 
ization. No one would now expect a people to 
change all its customs and ideas and practical 
modes of living and acting in a day. Even admit- 
ting a miraculous factor, we should not expect 
any such magical departure from all the psycho- 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 75 

logical and historical uniformities and continu- 
ities. If, then, God should begin with savages 
for the revelation of himself, he would descend 
to their savage plane ; and his work would have 
to be judged by its tendencies and outcome and 
final form rather than by its early phases. The 
initial morality would be savage ; the initial ideas 
would be crude ; the initial saints would be bar- 
barous. The morality would be slowly reformed. 
The myths, the legends, the dreams, would slowly 
be made the vehicles of a higher truth and would 
gradually fall away, or would receive a higher 
interpretation. Meanwhile, the saints would be 
far from ideal. The tradition, the environment, 
the custom, would, to some extent, be reproduced 
in them, with a highly composite result. The 
author of the hymn, " In the cross of Christ I 
glory," was also prominent in the opium war and 
conducted the negotiations that fastened the 
opium traffic on China. In our civil war there 
were undoubtedly good Christians on both sides 
who had the root of the matter in them ; but they 
were doing their best to kill one another upon 
occasion. The spirit only slowly comes to appro- 
priate manifestation ; and yet all the while the 
leaven is leavening the lump — in which process, 
moreover, both the life of the leaven and the 
lumpishness of the lump are fully manifested. 



76 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

If, then, any one is distressed over the crude 
morality and religious savagery of the Old Testa- 
ment, the reply to him would be twofold. First, 
the old saints are no models for us. The fact that 
they did certain things is no warrant for our 
doing them. It is well known to what abomina- 
tions and cruelties the following of Old Testa- 
ment standards has led. For us the spirit of Christ 
is the only standard. But, secondly, it does not 
follow from this that God was not in the Old 
Testament history and even in the savagery, not 
of course as approving it as ideal, but as using 
it because of the hardness of men's hearts. Either 
that, or we must withdraw God from our thought 
of history altogether. A glance at cosmic ethics 
as revealed in all history will show it to be quite 
as grim as anything in Hebrew history. If these 
savageries were presented to us as divine ideals 
or as abiding standards for our imitation, our 
revolt could not be too instant and uncompromis- 
ing; and in any case it requires some nerve and 
mental steadiness to contemplate human history, 
even to-day, without disquietude. Only the out- 
come can justify it. 

But if God be a God of grace, and if this rev- 
elation be so valuable, why was it Hmited to so 
few and not rather conferred at once upon the 
many? This limitation has its mystery, but it 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 77 

is of a piece with the divine method in general. 
Mediation is the great form of divine communi- 
cation. New truth is not painted on the sky or 
given to all at once^ but it begins in the thought 
of one or of a few, and thence spreads. This is 
the form in which God's revelation of himself is 
spread abroad. The source of our trouble with 
this method is a back-lying misconception. It is 
supposed that God is made good by his revela- 
tion, and that he is not gracious toward those to 
whom the good news has not come. This notion 
has indeed been held, but it is rapidly passing 
into the class of extinct blasphemies. God is not 
made good by the revelation ; he is shown to be 
good; and the goodness and grace exist and 
determine the divine action, whether revealed or 
not. The God who is dealing with the human 
race, in all its branches and individuals, is the 
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the 
Father of whom every fatherhood in heaven and 
in earth is named. We have got as far beyond 
the wholesale damnation of the heathen as we 
have beyond the damnation of infants, whether 
unbaptized or not. 

The revelation of God, I said, was completed 
in Christ. This is true only of the objective mani- 
festation. The revelation of that revelation is 
still going on. Christ's words were a leaven, a 



78 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

seed; and their meaning and transforming influ- 
ence were only slowly to be manifested in the 
growing life and insight of his disciples under 
the tuition of the Holy Spirit. In the deepest 
sense, truth is revealed only when it is under- 
stood; and in this sense the revelation is still 
going on. This revelation can never be put into 
a book, so that any one who can read may dis- 
cern it; it is possible only to, and in, the prepared 
heart. Hence the spiritual meaning of Christian- 
ity only slowly enters the minds of men. The 
truth is hidden by blindness, or is warped into 
some image of our narrowness, until the inner 
illumination is reached. Then new truth breaks 
forth out of the Word. The Lord looketh at the 
heart. God is a spirit, and they that worship him 
must worship him in spirit and in truth. These 
words have been with us for ages ; and yet how 
slowly do we free ourselves from the notion that 
God is a stickler for etiquette, that certain rites 
and formulas are necessary to secure his favor, 
and that only certain persons can effectually 
administer or pronounce them — a notion which 
intellectually and morally is on the level of sor- 
cery and incantation. 

But there has been a very great and whole- 
some growth in Christian thought in recent years. 
Under the guidance of the promised Spirit, we 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 79 

are coining nearer to the truth of God. The 
elaborate constructions and interpretations of 
earlier creeds are falling away ; but in their place 
we have something infinitely better, — a clearer 
apprehension of that Fatherhood of which every 
fatherhood in heaven and earth is named, of 
God's moral purpose in the world, of his up- 
building kingdom, and his nearness to every 
faithful soul. The mechanical and artificial con- 
ception of salvation also is falling away, and we 
are coming to see that the end of the law is love ; 
that is, the purpose of the law is to beget love in 
the heart and life. Or again, more concretely 
and comprehensively, Christ is the end of the 
law; that is, the fundamental aim is to reproduce 
Christ in the disciple. And this insight is grad- 
ually transforming Christian thought from an 
incredible mechanism of words and rites to a liv- 
ing and life-giving conception of what God is 
and what he means. 

The mental life tends to equilibrium. The cus- 
tomary is clear and right ; and clear and right 
often because customary. With the passive mind 
any departure from the customary is wrong and 
disastrous. The most beneficent modifications of 
opinion and custom have been viewed with alarm. 
In like manner the religious life adjusts itself to 
current customs and conceptions ; and any depart- 



80 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

ure from them is thought to be fatal. But expe- 
rience shows that life can abide across many 
changes of conception, and even that the new 
conception may be more favorable to life than 
the old. And this is true of the newer views of 
the Bible and revelation. Because of the fact 
just mentioned these were thought by many to 
be destructive, but now that we are used to them 
we find them genuine aids to faith. There is 
nothing in them that detracts from the value of 
revelation, but rather much that makes revelation 
more living and effective. We have indeed no 
longer a dictated and infallible book, but we 
have the record of the self-revelation of God in 
history and in the thought and feeling of holy 
men. With this change the intellectual scandals 
and incredibilities which infest the former view 
have vanished ; and in its place has come a 
blessed and growing insight into what God is 
and what he means, which is our great and chief 
source of hope and inspiration. 

It is a great change that has taken place in 
passing from the old view of the Bible to the 
new, and one readily understands that it would 
involve much friction and misunderstanding. 
The traditional conception was clear, but it has 
been finally discredited by the facts, and in its 
place we have something more vital indeed, but 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 81 

also more complex and less easily formulated. 
We now see that the revelation has taken place 
through a long historical process, through God's 
dealings with a chosen people, through the inspi- 
ration of holy men, through the songs of psalmists 
and the sermons and aspiration of prophets, and 
above all and more especially through the mani- 
festation of the Divine Son. It was nothing me- 
chanically given or rigidly fixed ; it grew and it 
grew out of historical conditions through the 
working of the Holy Spirit upon the minds and 
hearts of holy men. We see that it was conditioned 
by the imperfections of the men to whom it came. 
They did not understand it. They had no such 
conception of the divine meaning as we possess. 
God is the great exegete, and he makes clear now 
what he meant then, but the men in the midst of 
the process had no clear vision. The meaning was 
not communicated with the exactness of a statute ; 
it has become clear only in the unfolding of 
history. 

And the facts that lead to this view may easily 
be pressed into the service of denial. They do 
lead to the rejection of the traditional view, and 
so long as that was thought to be the only pos- 
sible view, they made for the rejection of revela- 
tion altogether. Some of these facts have been 
urged by unbelievers for centuries and have suf- 



82 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

f ered in reputation on that account. Hence when 
Christian scholars began to insist on them as 
reasons for modifying the traditional view, they 
were thought to have gone over to the "infidels," 
and were slandered and libeled accordingly. All 
this was unfortunate, but not unintelligible ; for 
the scholars themselves were not always happy in 
their way of putting things and often made the 
impression of denying revelation altogether. We 
have had the same experience in the biblical field 
that we have had with evolution. The latter doc- 
trine, now that it is understood and duly limited 
to the facts, is seen to be at least harmless and 
even a veritable aid to theistic faith; but the 
doctrine as taught by a great many of its holders 
a generation ago was pure materialism and athe- 
ism. Ignorant teaching was met with ignorant 
rejection. More careful thought has changed all 
this, so that only a belated mind would be fright- 
ened at evolution, or would find in it an all- 
explaining formula. 

Similar progress in the biblical field is fast 
enabling us to accept all the facts which unbe- 
lievers have marshaled against revelation, and is 
turning them into veritable aids to faith. Unwit- 
tingly unbelievers have built on the false anti- 
thesis of the natural and the supernatural, and 
have fancied that when natural laws were traced 



THE CHRISTIAN REVELATION 83 

in the revealing movement, all supernatural mean- 
ing was denied. This fancy vanishes when we 
rise to the thought that the natural itself is no 
self-running mechanism, but only the orderly 
form of the divine working. We may still believe 
that God spake at sundry times and in divers 
manners unto the fathers by the prophets and 
by his Son, and that still by his Spirit he speaks 
unto the children and leads them into larger and 
fuller truth and life. 

A recent report of a liberal religious gathering 
for the discussion of the Bible sums up the result 
by saying that we have discovered that the Bible 
is no revelation by God to man, but a revelation 
by man to man. Evidently the writer thought 
this a complete and perfect disjunction. If so, he 
was in the toils of the false natural and the false 
supernatural. God is no longer so easily ruled out 
by a verbal antithesis. It is still permitted to be- 
lieve in a revelation hy God through man to man 
for the better knowledge of God and the greater 
blessing of men. In the human world God is less 
a with'WorJcer than a through-worhery but he 
works nevertheless to will and to work of his 
good pleasure. 



II 

THE 
INCARNATION AND THE ATONEMENT 



n 

THE INCARNATION AND THE ATONEMENT 

In his second letter to the Corinthian church St. 
Paul interrupts his general discussion to appeal 
for a collection in behalf of the persecuted Chris- 
tians of Judea. He first mentions the liberality 
of the Macedonian churches ; but with his deli- 
cacy of feeling and his belief in freedom he de- 
chnes to lay down any rule for their gifts. The 
Corinthian brethren must decide for themselves. 
Still, in making their decision, he would have 
them remember the grace of the Lord Jesus and 
his divine sacrifice for them. " For ye know the 
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he 
was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that 
ye through his poverty might become rich." 

This word of St. Paul's is very interesting for 
both its matter and its manner. Its matter is 
essentially the doctrine of the incarnation of the 
Divine Son for the redemption of men. Its man- 
ner shows it to be the faith of the Corinthian 
church at that time. The doctrine is not presented 
as something new and strange, but is assumed as 
something known and accepted. " For ye know 



88 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ/' etc. Our 
Lord had existed before his incarnation. He had 
been rich, rich in the ineffable divine fellowship 
of the Father with the Son, rich in the glory 
which he had with the Father before the world 
was. As Paul declares in another passage, our 
Lord had originally been in the form of God, yet 
had not thought equality with God a thing to be 
insisted on, but emptied himself, taking the form 
of a bond-servant and becoming obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross. And all this 
had been done for our sakes. For us he became 
poor. For us he laid aside the glory which he had 
with the Father, and became subject to human 
limitations and conditions. And all was done in 
order that by this infinite love and sacrifice we 
might be lifted up to God. For Paul at least, 
and for the early Christians also, our Lord's exist- 
ence did not begin in Judea or in the stable at 
Bethlehem. 

This in brief is the doctrine of the incarnation 
and atonement as continuously told by the Chris- 
tian Church, with scantiest variations, from its 
beginning until now. It is the essential doctrine of 
Christianity and the abiding source of its power. 
The doctrine has often been crudely held and 
sometimes caricatured, but Christian thought has 
always returned to it as its chief treasure. The 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 89 

present study aims to rescue this doctrine from 
some of the misunderstandings that have gath- 
ered around it. And first we consider the incar- 
nation, its meaning and religious significance. 

It is very easy to mistake this doctrine. We 
are often tempted to interpret it by the imagina- 
tion, and to conceive of our Lord as spatially 
inclosed within the Hmits of a human form. Of 
course insoluble difficulties at once arise as to 
how he could be thus limited and confined, and 
superficial thought hastens to conclude that the 
doctrine is absurd and the fact impossible. 

Again, when we speak of our Lord as assum- 
ing our nature it is easy to conceive that nature 
as a kind of something by itself which was 
assumed, and then we have equally insoluble 
difficulties respecting the mutual relation of his 
divine and his human nature, his divine and his 
human will. Here again we have an insoluble 
difficulty, so long as the problem is presented in 
this crude form. This impossible duality appeared 
at an early date in Christian thought, and has 
commonly been eliminated by being ignored. 
But these difficulties arise from picture thinking. 
The unpicturable problems of thought always 
seem absurd when intrusted to the imagination 
for solution, and we especially need to be on our 
guard in this matter against the misleading sug- 



90 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

gestions of this faculty. We speak of ourselves 
as being in the body, thus using a spatial form 
of speech; but we are not in the body as some- 
thing that contains us. Being in the body means 
simply and only having a type of experience 
which is physically conditioned. Being in this 
world means only having a certain type of ex- 
perience with certain forms and laws. Passing 
out of this world would mean only passing from 
one type and condition of experience to another. 
And being a man, in general, means only ex- 
istence under certain conditions and laws. And 
if any being should become subject to the con- 
ditions, laws, and limitations of human life, that 
being would by that fact, and so far forth, be- 
come, in the only intelligible sense of the phrase, 
a human being. The assumption of human na- 
ture has the same meaning. That nature is not 
a separate something to be put on like a gar- 
ment, or joined on by some metaphysical hyphen. 
It is simply the general law of humanity, and 
if any being should become subject to that gen- 
eral law he would to that extent assume human 
nature. 

Hence by the incarnation of our Lord we do 
not mean that an infinite being was compressed 
into the limits of a human form, or that in some 
picturable way he put on our humanity like an 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 91 

external covering. We mean rather that he be- 
came subject to the conditions, laws, and limita- 
tions of human life, and thus became in the 
truest sense of the word a man. In this sense 
he assumed our nature and lived our life. Of 
course no language on such a subject is to be 
pressed beyond its general significance. It would 
not tend to edification to ask how far such lim- 
itation goes. The question could not be answered 
in any case. Human nature has higher ranges as 
well as lower ones, and there is no need to think 
of a descent into imbecility in order to become 
man. It suffices to affirm a subjection to the 
law of humanity such that we may best express 
the fact by saying, "The Word became flesh, 
and dwelt among us." This in the sense de- 
scribed is intelligible, at least in its meaning, 
and this is enough. When we say more than 
this, we soon lose ourselves in words and bad 
metaphysics. 

If now we ask how this limitation is possible, 
the answer must be that we do not know ; but 
just as little do we know how it is impossible. 
The progress of both scientific and philosophic 
reflection is making the problems of fundamental 
existence more and more mysterious, and, by 
revealing the limitations and relativity of our 
thought, is making thoughtful men more and 



92 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

more careful of pronouncing on what is possible 
or impossible apart from the indications of ex- 
perience. This only we can say : There must be 
some community between the divine and the 
human to make this incarnation possible. If these 
were strictly opposites, there could be no such 
assumption of human nature. 

It may also be added that the doctrine is 
equally impossible except as we assume the sub- 
ordination of the Son. The formula of Chalcedon 
on this point goes beyond both Scripture and 
reason. With this limitation, the net result of 
theological thought is that while God in his 
absolute existence must always remain a fath- 
omless mystery to us, we come nearest to the 
truth when we think of the Father, the Son, 
and the Spirit. This is the doctrine of the Trin- 
ity, a doctrine mysterious enough no doubt, yet, 
after all, the line of least resistance, both from 
the biblical and from the philosophical stand- 
point. There is no view that is not attended with 
great difficulty when we try to think it through. 
The conception of a community of persons in the 
unity of the divine existence is no worse off in 
this respect than the conception of a single and 
lonely personality without the eternal fellowship 
which moral life demands. The conception of the 
lonely God with no personal community in the 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 93 

divine unity tends to run off either into agnosti- 
cism or into some form of pantheism. Likewise, 
the net result of Christological thought is that 
Jesus was not merely the Son of Mary, but was 
also the Son of God, who took upon him the laws 
and limitations of the human lot and thus became 
man in order that he might lift us to God. This 
is the doctrine of the Incarnation, which depends 
for its possibility on the other doctrine of the 
Trinity. 

With this word on the meaning and the meta- 
physics of the doctrine, let us pass to consider its 
religious and practical significance. For it is not, 
as many have fancied, a barren curiosity of theo- 
logical speculation, if not a grievous affront to 
reason ; it is rather the power of God unto sal- 
vation, and the central truth of Christianity. 

And, first, the incarnation contains the highest 
revelation of God. We have no call to consider 
what might be possible in worlds of which we 
know nothing ; but in our human world God's 
highest manifestation of himself is made in the 
incarnation and humiliation of his Son. The 
revelation of power and intelligence is simple 
enough. A certain measure of goodness also may 
be shown in the beneficent arrangements of the 
natural world; but the highest revelation, the 
revelation of moral love in the highest degree, 



94 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

lies far beyond all these things and involves 
another order of manifestation altoo^ether. The- 
ology has said many things about the divine 
holiness, but it has been largely a negative and 
abstract thing. God has been conceived as gov- 
ernor, as promulgating and executing righteous 
laws ; and his holiness would seem to be exhausted 
in these things. The old philosophies hardly con- 
ceived God as ethical at all. They thought of 
him as a kind of metaphysical perfection, and 
were careful to free him from much thouofht or 
care for his creatures as beneath his notice. God 
was made on the Epicurean model and sat apart, — 

Where never falls the least white star of snow, 
Where never lowest sound of thunder rolls, 
Nor sigh of human sorrow mounts to mar 
His sacred, everlasting calm. 

And this philosophy, which was little but a 
reflection of human vulgarity and selfishness, 
infected theology. Again, a great deal of our 
theology was written when men believed in the 
divine right and irresponsibility of kings, and this 
conception also crept into and corrupted theolo- 
gical thinking, so that God was conceived less as 
a truly moral being than as a magnified and irre- 
sponsible despot ; while the thought of affirming 
that God is under any kind of moral obligation 
to his creatures would have been shuddered at as 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 95 

absurd, if not blasphemous. The God of that the- 
ology could not have been imitated by man with- 
out infamy. But Christian thought has moved 
far away from this notion ; and we have come 
to see that God is the most deeply obligated being 
in existence, and moral principles are as binding 
for him as for us. 

It was an awful responsibility that was taken 
when our human race was launched with its fear- 
ful possibilities of good and evil. God thereby 
put himself under infinite obligation to care for 
his human family ; and reflections on his position 
as Creator and Ruler instead of removing, only 
make this obligation more manifest. In particular, 
the attempt to conceive God as love has compelled 
the giving up of those absolutist notions of divine 
sovereignty which formed the foundation of the- 
ology a hundred years ago. We that are strong 
ought to bear the burdens of the weak, is seen 
to be a principle of universal application. A God 
of love must do works of love and be all that love 
implies. Else love is not love. 

It may be that there was a time when the 
Jewish or even the Mohammedan conception of 
God as simply Ruler and Master was more use- 
ful than the Christian view. Men needed to learn 
the lesson of law; and for this stage of develop- 
ment possibly the conception of a Ruler issuing 



96 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

commands, bestowing rewards, and inflicting 
punishment, was the best. But there comes a 
time in moral development when such a view is 
seen in its inadequacy to moral demands; and 
then only the gospel of divine self-sacrifice meets 
the case. 

We return now to the claim that the incarna- 
tion is the highest revelation of God. If God had 
filled space and time with inanimate worlds, that 
would have revealed only power and skill. If he 
had filled the world with pleasure-giving contriv- 
ances, that would have revealed benevolence. If 
he had sent us prophets and teachers at no real 
cost to himself, that too would be something; 
but it would not greatly stir our hearts toward 
God. Our love would go out to the prophets and 
teachers themselves, for the toil and the pain would 
fall on them. In all beneficence of this sort God 
would appear simply as a rich man who out of 
his abundance scatters bounty to the needy, but 
at no cost to himself. A certain gratitude would 
indeed be possible, but along this line God would 
forever remain morally below the moral heroes 
of our race. Their gifts cost. They put them- 
selves and their hearts into their work. They 
attain to the morality of self-sacrifice, and this is 
infinitely beyond the morality of any giving that 
does not cost. And there must ever be a higher 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 97 

moral possibility until we reach the revelation of 
God in self-sacrifice, until God becomes the chief 
of burden-bearers and the leader of all in self- 
abnegation. Then the possibilities of grace are 
filled up. There is nothing beyond this. The 
heroic, the self-sacrificing God stands revealed, 
and God makes the highest revelation of himself. 

And this is made possible in the incarnation. 
The Father loved the world and gave his Son for 
its redemption. The Son leaves the glory which 
he had with the Father and enters into the hu- 
man lot and becomes obedient unto death that 
he may reveal the Father and reconcile men to 
God. There is great mystery here, but through 
it all we get the impression of boundless love 
issuing in mysterious self-sacrifice, a work of love 
at boundless cost and pain for the salvation of a 
perverse and sinful world. 

Let me put the matter in another way. Sup- 
pose there were anywhere a human being who 
sat down to enjoy himself in the face of the 
world's misery and pain and sorrow, and looked 
indifferently on woe and suffering which he 
might relieve, yet did nothing. What should we 
think of him? And suppose we magnify this 
himian being until he becomes very great and 
wise and powerful, would not his selfishness 
become all the more horrible? And suppose we 



98 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

enlarge the conception until the being becomes 
all-wise and all-powerful, what then? Plainly 
such a being would be the monster of the moral 
universe. His greatness in all other respects 
would but emphasize the awful wickedness of his 
selfishness; and every act of self-sacrificing love 
on the part of men would be his condemnation. 
Nor would it help the matter if we called this 
being God. We that are strong ought to bear 
the burdens of the weak; and the strongest 
ought to be the greatest burden-bearer. In the 
moral world he that is greatest of all should 
be the servant of all. There is no exception from 
this rule, not even for God himself. Of course it 
is not a matter of legal obligation, but of moral 
goodness. The courts know nothing of this mat- 
ter, but love understands it. And love, with all 
that love implies, is the highest and supreme duty 
in a moral system. Moral goodness, whether in 
man or God, does not consist in doing things 
beyond requirement, but in meeting for love's 
sake love's highest and supreme requirement. In 
the highest sense there is no such thing possible 
as transcending requirement; but there is such a 
thing as divinely doing what divinely should be 
done. 

I know something of the arguments whereby 
we seek to keep our faith in the divine goodness 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 99 

ia the presence of the world's pain and sorrow 
and the manifold sinister aspects of existence. I 
do not disparage them; upon occasion I use 
them ; but I always feel that at best they are only 
palliatives and leave the great depths of the 
problem untouched. There is only one argument 
that touches the bottom, and that is Paul's ques- 
tion : " He that spared not his own Son, but de- 
livered him up for us all, how shall he not with 
him also freely give us all things?" We look on 
the woes of the world. We hear the whole crea- 
tion, to use Paul's language, groaning and labor- 
ing in pain. We see a few good men vainly 
striving to help the world into life and light; 
and in our sense of the awful magnitude of the 
problem and of our inability to do much, we cry 
out: "Where's God? How can he bear this? 
Why doesn't he do something?" And there is 
but one answer that satisfies ; and that is the In- 
carnation and the Cross. God could not bear it. 
He has done something. He has done the utmost 
compatible with moral wisdom. He has entered 
into the fellowship of our suffering and misery 
and at infinite cost has taken the world upon his 
heart that he might raise it to himself. This is 
the highest revelation. Of course the order of 
life is still mysterious. The mystery of pain is 
not yet solved. But in the presence of this reve- 



100 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

lation we say, with the Apostle: What shall 
separate us from the love o£ God? For he that 
spared not his own Son for our sakes must with 
him give us all things; so that against all evils 
and distresses whatsoever we are more than con- 
querors through him that hath loved us. 

In such a world as ours the incarnation contains 
the highest revelation of God. It is only a further 
specification of the same thought when I add that 
the incarnation is the great source of the power 
of Christianity. In illustration of this claim, con- 
sider the following facts : The chief value of the 
Christian revelation consists in its being a reve- 
lation of God. It is not primarily and essentially 
a series of verbal statements about God, but rather 
a description of what God has done and intends 
for men. And the things said and done get their 
chief significance from the one who said and did 
them. Apply this to Christ himself. He went far 
beyond Moses and the prophets in his insight 
into divine things ; and if he were only a man like 
them, this would be all. He would reveal God as 
they did, by word only; and God himself would 
not come near enough for self -revelation. But as- 
sume that the incarnation is true, and the meaning 
and power of the whole are infinitely changed. 
Now we see God in act, in self-revelation. The 
Divine Son is living the ideal human life before 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 101 

men to reveal the heart of God, to show us God's 
thought of humanity, and the way God would 
have us live. The Divine Son is bearing the sins 
and sorrows of men, and is faithful unto death ; 
that he may show the love and righteousness of 
God and redeem the world unto himself. The 
Divine Son identifies himself with the least of 
these his human brethren, so that whatever is 
done to them is done to him. These things are the 
essence of Christianity ; but what becomes of them 
apart from the incarnation? It is one thing if 
only a Jewish peasant uttered these words ; it is 
quite another if the speaker was the Lord of life 
and glory. It is one thing if he who hung on the 
cross was only a good young Jew of Nazareth, 
meeting an undeserved and shameful death — 
such things have happened before and since ; but 
it is quite another if he was the Son of God who 
might have summoned twelve legions of angels, 
but who for love's sake endured the cross and 
the contradiction of sinners against himself. The 
power is gone if we are dealing with Jesus, 
the carpenter's son ; for the power depends not 
on the words and deeds themselves, but on him 
who said and did them. The infinite poverty 
appears only as we contrast it with the infinite 
riches ; and only in this contrast is the infinite 
love revealed. The life and character of Jesus 



102 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

acquire their supreme importance only through 
the incarnation. 

The boldness of Christian thought at this 
point is a constant amazement and astonishment. 
Having ventured the great thought that God is 
love, it draws the appropriate conclusion. What 
shall a God of love do but works of love ? And 
where shall love be found so surely as there where 
it is most needed ? And where is the divine help 
so much needed as here in our human lives ? 
And so Christianity with sublime audacity and 
logic recalls God from that far-off throne where 
our vulgar thought had placed him, and finds him 
present to every soul and to every need. In the 
exercise of his love God has sent us rain from 
heaven and fruitful seasons and daily bread. But 
this was not enough. He also sent us prophets and 
teachers to reveal his will. But this also was 
not enough. There was a still higher thought, 
and Christianity dared to think it. It was that 
God himself should come into humanity for his 
supreme self-manifestation and for the redemp- 
tion of men. And when the way had been 
prepared, the Divine Son appears as the Divine 
Redeemer. There is nothing beyond this. The 
possibilities of grace are exhausted. God has 
made the highest moral revelation of himself. 
He is seen at the head of all those who love, and 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 103 

for love's sake bear burdens and sacrifice them- 
selves. 

A Divine Person working for love's sake a 
divine work for man's redemption is the centre of 
the Christian faith and the source of its power. 
Drop it out of our teaching, and, though the 
external form and facts may remain unchanged, 
the life is gone nevertheless. Men wonder that 
Christian faith should cling so pertinaciously to 
this mysterious doctrine, — mysterious to specu- 
lation, but clear to love, — but the reason is that 
it contains all that is distinctively Christian. The 
self-sacrificing love of God, and even the ethical 
perfection and moral grandeur of God, are all 
bound up in this doctrine. That which stirs men's 
hearts has always been the condescension, the 
grace of the Lord Jesus, the cross, that is, 
the self-renunciation, of Christ. " Herein is love, 
not that we loved God, but that he loved us, 
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our 
sins." ''He loved us and gave himself for us." 
Now the revelation of love and righteousness is 
complete. And now not merely gratitude, but 
adoring love and absolute self-surrender, become 
possible on our part. Now intellect and conscience 
and heart and will aHke can come to God and 
say, " Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done." 
No wonder that Paul cried out : " God forbid 



104 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ." No wonder that Peter declares 
that the angels desire to look into this grace of 
God. For surely in earth or heaven there is no- 
thing great or divine besides. 

Thus the power of God's revelation has its 
chief source in the incarnation. And we may be 
perfectly sure that no lower conception of God 
will permanently command the minds and hearts 
of men. We should not have reached the concep- 
tion ourselves, but now that it has been revealed 
to us we see that something of the kind is a 
moral necessity if we are to think the highest 
thought of God. And there is a peculiar dialectic 
in human thought whereby we are compelled to 
think of God as perfect or not at all. An impei^ 
feet God is none. As soon as a higher concep- 
tion emerges we must adopt it into our thought 
of God, or see our faith in him fade out until 
it vanishes altogether. A fairly good God we 
cannot abide. We can be satisfied with nothing 
less than the Supreme and Perfect. Hence it 
is that the Christian thought of God wins its 
way. It is the only one worthy of God or man. 
So far as speculation goes, it is as thinkable as 
any other; and it is the only one that is able 
to inspire and perfect our human Hfe. History is 
the su£6.cient criticism of all others and the sur- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 105 

vival of the fittest must give the decision. Cavils 
can be raised against anything, and anything 
can be rejected if we see fit; but history clearly 
indicates the continuity of Christian thought in 
the past and enables us to forecast it for the 
future. 

Thus we have considered the moral fitness 
and necessity and religious importance of the 
incarnation. We now pass to consider the atone- 
ment, of which the incarnation is the pre-con- 
dition. 

This doctrine also has been the subject of 
much misunderstanding. The Church has always 
held that a great work of grace has been wrought 
for the salvation of men. "God so loved the 
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever beheveth in him should not perish, 
but have everlasting life." "The Son of man 
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, 
and to give his life a ransom for many." Such 
passages set forth the work of love, and because 
of this work the forgiveness of sins is promised 
unto all those who turn to God in repentance 
and faith. But when it comes to the philosophy 
of this work we find a vast deal of confusion, 
owing partly to unclearness of thought, and more 
especially to a misunderstanding of the nature of 



106 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

language and its imperfection as an instrument 
of thought. We must first bring this fact out 
into clearness. 

Assuming, then, the reality of a divine work of 
grace for the blessing of men, the question arises, 
How shall it be expressed and made accessible 
to our minds? A little reflection convinces us 
that there must always be something transcen- 
dental in the divine life and activity to which our 
earth-born thought, and especially our "matter- 
moulded" forms of speech can only approximate. 
Thought itself has its parallax with reality when 
dealing with these high themes; and even when 
we are sure we have the right conception, we see 
it vanishing into mystery on the farther side. 
Such conceptions are of the nature of limits, to 
which we must approximate but cannot fully 
attain. Approached from the side of experience 
we see their necessity; but when we take them 
abstractly and absolutely, and reflect upon them 
in their metaphysical possibility, we soon find 
ourselves wandering in "endless mazes lost." 
Conceptions of this type are clear only from the 
side of the facts ; if we attempt to approach them 
from the farther side, or by the way of deductive 
speculation, we only delude and confuse our- 
selves. 

We may illustrate our meaning by our con- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 107 

ception of the divine life and consciousness. 
When we attempt to construe our experience of 
the inner and outer world, we are shut up to the 
affirmation of an absolute and intelligent cause 
as their only adequate source. But as soon as we 
seek to construe this cause in its inner life, we 
find mysteries thronging upon us. We have to 
af&rm an unbegun life of tideless fullness, of 
unchanging self-possession, a life transcending 
time, and subject to no spatial limitations. How 
mysterious this is ! Our own life of spatial and 
temporal limitation furnishes a very inadequate 
key, and we have to be constantly on our guard 
against transferring to that life conceptions born 
of our own limitations. 

This illustrates what is meant by saying that 
thought itself has a parallax with reality which 
we must never forget. A further parallax is found 
in language, which is only an imperfect instru- 
ment for the expression of an already imperfect 
thought. All language for expressing spiritual 
things is necessarily based on metaphor. How- 
ever spiritual the conception itself may be, it 
can find linguistic expression only through some 
physical image or experience. All such language 
is literally false, but we use it in the hope that 
it will be taken, not for what it says, but for 
what it means. The process by which the mind 



108 STUDIES m CHRISTIANITY 

passes from the metaphor to the meaning is one 
of the dark places of psychology and epistemo- 
logy; but it is fundamental to all intellectual 
communion through Hnguistic or any symbolic 
expression. 

This use of the physical to express the spiritual 
is especially prominent in religion and theology. 
Here we perpetually use language which we know 
to be literally false in the hope that it will be 
rightly understood. Thus we ascribe form and 
place to God, and speak of Jesus as sitting at the 
right hand of God. " They shall see his face ; 
and his name shall be in their foreheads." God 
has a sword and arrows, and flies upon the wings 
of the wind. Of course, no one would fancy that 
any objective fact corresponds to these utterances. 
Again, we often attribute psychological and even 
physiological experiences to God which are neces- 
sarily limited to the finite spirit. " He that sitteth 
in the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have 
them in derision." "And it repented the Lord 
that he had made man." 

Of course, we do not object to the use of lan- 
guage of this kind. To be sure, there is a choice 
in metaphors, but metaphor of some sort is a neces- 
sity of religious speech. All that we can demand 
is that the metaphor, however impossible when 
literally taken, shall adumbrate a true conception 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 109 

or make a true impression. Nevertheless, these 
considerations show us that we must beware of 
taking our words as exact and literal statements 
of the truth, and we must even beware of taking 
our thoughts themselves as exhaustive and final 
conceptions of the truth. Thought has its element 
of relativity, and language needs more than the 
dictionary for its interpretation. Without a vital 
and spiritual process there is no possibility of 
understanding language, and there is hardly any 
absurdity which may not be evolved from lan- 
guage when the living soul is lacking. The letter 
always kills; only the spirit, the understanding, 
can profit. 

So much for thought and language in general. 
It is further plain that, for setting forth the great 
truth of the divine grace, it was necessary to use 
the actual speech and conceptions of the time. 
Any revelation which might be made to men must 
be cast in the existing moulds of thought and 
expression; otherwise it would be unintelligible. 
Accordingly we find the great salvation set forth 
in the language of ancient life and custom. In 
particular the religious rites and traditions of the 
age had produced a great system of thought and 
speech, and in terms of this system the doctrine 
of grace was naturally cast. The language of the 
altar and temple, the customs of ransom and 



110 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

redemption, the legal usages of the time, all lent 
themselves to its expression. AccordiDgly, Christ 
is a sacrifice and propitiation for our sins. He is 
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of 
the world. He is our passover. He gives his life 
a ransom for many, and thus becomes the Re- 
deemer of the world. This language was neces- 
sary. The religious thought and development of 
the time would have been inaccessible to any 
other. Exact theological and speculative state- 
ment would have been unintelligible, or confusing 
and misleading, just as exact scientific statement 
would have been in the field of nature. Thus the 
language of the time is used ; and for that time 
and for all times it makes a true impression ; and 
Christian thought is left, under the guidance of 
the Spirit, to distinguish between the spirit and 
the letter, between the abiding truth and the 
changing form of its expression. 

As children must think in pictures and spatial 
forms, and only slowly pass beyond images to 
conceptions, or beyond pictures to meanings, so 
the entire race necessarily began its religious 
thinking in the picture and dramatic form, and 
only slowly and very imperfectly reached the 
form of conception and rational significance. We 
must note the necessity of the early stages of this 
process, and also their temporary character. We 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 111 

must also note the practical nature of Scripture 
language, and its relativity to our present needs. 
It is becoming more and more apparent that the 
aim is to make a practically true and important 
impression, and that the language must not be 
taken in an absolute sense, as if it were the ex- 
pression of a speculative finality. The truth is 
to be found in the impression rather than in any 
logical or dictionary analysis of the forms of 
speech ; and the expression and understanding 
will vary with the growth of thought and life and 
knowledge. 

The language of Scripture, then, has its 
pictorial, dramatic, metaphorical, and relative 
elements ; but it is not to be set aside on that 
account. We must rather seek to understand it 
in a free and living way, neither allowing our- 
selves to be intimidated by the dictionary, nor 
rejecting the language as meaningless. Metaphor 
is metaphor, indeed ; but metaphor in all intel- 
ligent speech must have a meaning. How, then, 
is this language concerning the great salvation to 
be understood ? 

First of all, we may consider the general im- 
pression it makes, apart from any question as to 
its literal truth. And the thing which clearly 
appears when the matter is thus considered is a 
divine work of condescending grace. We see the 



112 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

love of God in the gift of his Son, and the love 
of Christ in his work for us, and the gracious 
condition in which, as the result of that work, 
we find ourselves. The forgiveness of sins is pro- 
claimed. The divine love is declared, and the 
divine help is proffered to all. This is the clear 
revelation which emerges from these forms of 
speech ; and this is a divine gospel which is 
worthy of all acceptation. 

So long as the language is thus viewed as an 
instrument, as a mode of putting the truth and 
making a true impression concerning the grace 
of God, it is permissible and useful so far and 
so long as it makes that impression. As just 
suggested, it was originally necessary, and it is 
by no means antiquated now. We may then recog- 
nize its value as a form of expression, and at the 
same time hold its purely instrumental character. 
We may hold that in another stage of moral and 
religious development these modes of speech 
would not be the best possible because the forms 
and customs on which they rest have passed 
away. For instance, we may well believe that 
the biblical forms of speech, while expressive 
and necessary for the time when they originated, 
would not be employed if the Christian teaching 
were to be set forth for the first time to-day ; 
just as swords and arrows would not be used to 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 113 

represent the divine weapons, or harps would not 
be the chief musical instrument of the saints. 
We cannot doubt that the doctrine would be cast 
in modern moulds rather than in those of the 
Jewish Church and the Roman law. There is no 
good reason for thinking that those ancient forms 
have an eternal fitness beyond all others for ex- 
pressing the grace of God. We, then, who inherit 
them have to consider not so much what was said 
as what was meant, and to guard ourselves 
against a worship of the letter which shall cause 
us to miss the spirit. 

The significance and expressiveness of these 
ancient forms of thought and speech are allowed 
when they are taken in a free and vital way, 
and are not reduced to literal statements of fact. 
But why may we not take them literally, and 
view them as exact statements of an objective 
process? For excellent reasons, which we now 
proceed to discuss. 

But, first of all, and for the sake of clearness, 
we must make a distinction in order to avoid 
confusion. We distinguish between the fact and 
the philosophy of the atonement, or between the 
atonement as a fact and the theories of the atone- 
ment. By the atonement as fact we understand 
the gracious work of the Lord Jesus for the 



114 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

blessing of men. All else is theory and mode of 
putting. And it is plain that one might well 
hold fast to the fact with all conviction and de- 
votion, and at the same time find no acceptable 
theory. This is the case with many thoughtful 
Christians at present. In the religious life the 
fact is the effective thing and the abiding thing ; 
the theory belongs to theology, and is by no 
means a constant quantity. The grace of the 
Lord Jesus and the love of God which Jesus re- 
vealed are what moves men's hearts and compels 
devotion. The cross of the Lord Jesus was that 
in which alone Paul would glory, not the govern- 
mental, or any other theory of the atonement. 
This acceptance of the fact is the sum of the 
matter with the great body of Christians, and it 
is all that is practically needed. It carries with it 
faith in the love of God, and the forgiveness of 
sins, and all other benefits of the Saviour's work. 
And it is conceivable that a Christian agnosticism 
should content itself with accepting the fact with- 
out any theory whatever. A Christian teacher 
who should simply proclaim the love of God and 
the self-sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on our behalf 
would proclaim the truth of the atonement far 
more effecnvely than another who should dwell 
on its philosophy. The former is intelligible even 
to the wayfaring man; the latter is not every- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 115 

body's affair; indeed, in some of its forms, it 
would not seem to be anybody's affair. 

The Scriptures themselves deal mainly with 
the fact, and give no single or consistent theory. 
The statements which seem theoretical are not 
harmonious with other statements by other 
writers or even by the same writer ; and this 
shows that they are ways of putting rather than 
dogmatic final ties. 

Let it, then, be clearly understood that the 
present discussion does not concern the fact of 
the atonement in the sense defined, but only the 
theory of it. The fact we af&rm and insist upon ; 
the theory, which is a matter mainly of theo- 
logical speculation, remains uncertain until now. 
With this understanding we return to the ques- 
tion whether the Scripture expressions concerning 
the work of Christ are to be literally taken. 

The answer to this question is. No. They are 
expressions of the truth in terms of the thought 
and speech of the time, and as such are signifi- 
cant and expressive; but when taken in any 
other sense they become incredible or immoral. 
This appears first in the fact that the Scriptures 
themselves have no single and consistent scheme 
of expression. This is sufficiently shown by the 
age-long debate among theologians on the sub- 
ject. When such different theories can be held, 



116 STUDIES EST CHRISTIANITY 

all appealing to Scripture, it is plain that the 
language is not to be absolutely taken, or that 
the Scriptures themselves are not clear and 
decisive in their teaching. In particular, two 
incommensurable notions underlie the general 
New Testament exposition. One is the notion 
of substitution based on the sacrificial figures of 
the Old Testament, and the other is the notion 
of the imputed merits and righteousness of Christ 
whereby the believer is justified. These two 
conceptions are entirely disparate when taken 
literally, and can never be united in one homo- 
geneous thought. They serve well to express 
the salvation wrought out by the Saviour, and the 
safety in which the disciple exists because of the 
redeeming work; but if we take them in strict 
literalness we are forthwith lost. In general the 
New Testament writers, and especially Paul, were 
laboring to express the great salvation and the 
glorious liberty of the children of God thence 
resulting; and they availed themselves, as we 
have said, of all the customs, religious and so- 
cial, which might serve for expression. If sin be 
thought of as a debt, it is paid. If it be thought 
of as a slavery, we are redeemed or ransomed. 
If it be thought of as guilt demanding atone- 
ment and propitiation and expiation, there has 
been one supreme sacrifice for sin. If we think 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 117 

of the mediating high priest of the old Temple, 
we, too, have a Mediator and a High Priest, 
Jesus, the Son of God, who has passed into the 
heavens, where he ever liveth to make interces- 
sion for us. If we think of our guilt and un- 
worthiness, we are clothed with the righteousness 
of Christ and are accepted in the Beloved. This 
language springs naturally out of the customs 
and modes of thought of the time; and it is 
striking and expressive when taken as the lan- 
guage of devout emotion and adoring gratitude; 
but it is full of embarrassment when taken in 
rigid literalness. Much of it also is foreign to 
our modes of thought, and has to be translated 
into modern forms of conception before we can 
make much out of it. 

Yet many persons, with little insight into the 
way in which living language is used, find it 
hard to distinguish between such instrumental 
and adumbrative use of language and its false- 
hood. If the language does not mean what it 
says, they fancy it must be false. Yet how much 
of religious or other language means what it 
says ? God is spoken of as a fortress, a dwelling- 
place of his people, as covering his saints with 
his feathers, as the shadow of a great rock in 
a weary land, while the righteous trust under 
his wings and abide under the shadow of the 



118 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

Almighty. All of these statements are literally 
false, and the various conceptions are mutually 
contradictory. Even the dullest can see this. 
Even the dullest perceives that the truth of such 
language lies in the idea it conveys, and that 
contradictory or incommensurable figures may 
be used to express the same truth. But fancy the 
result if any one should insist on taking this 
language with mechanical literalness. We have 
similar absurdity or impossibility when we take 
with rigid literalness the Scripture language con- 
cerning the Saviour's work. 

The same impossibility is further seen from 
the progress of theological discussion concerning 
the atonement. The language of satisfaction, 
payment of debt, etc., has been universally aban- 
doned in theory, or else so modified that it 
means something else. The latter is the more 
common course. This makes it possible to retain 
the language of Scripture and restrict it to a 
permissible meaning, which reduces to a conten- 
tion for words rather than for ideas. But Anti- 
nomianism was seen to be the immediate and 
unavoidable conclusion when the language was 
literally taken. The debt was paid or the penalty 
was exacted, and the sinner was, of course, free. 
The payment was demanded in the name of 
justice ; and, payment once made, justice could 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 119 

never demand or even permit that it be paid 
twice. The same conclusion resulted from the 
suppositions of substitution and satisfaction. Sup- 
posing these to be psychologically or morally con- 
ceivable, which is far from evident, it resulted 
at once that the sinner was unconditionally 
free. The suggestion of conditions whereby some 
sought to elude this conclusion did credit to their 
moral sense, but not to their logic. Such substi- 
tution, in the nature of the case, was in the indic- 
ative mood, and either was or was not the fact. 
If it was the fact, nothing either great or small 
remained for the sinner to do. But if something 
did remain, then it was not a literal substitution 
or an absolute satisfaction, but something else, a 
substitution which did not substitute, a satisfac- 
tion which did not satisfy. With this result the 
doctrine became, as just said, a contention for 
words. It was thought necessary to say substitu- 
tion and say satisfaction, but the meaning was 
left indefinite. The Antinomians, the holders of 
the unconditional perseverance of the saints, and 
the Calvinistic Universalists of the death-and- 
glory type, were the only logical defenders of the 
literal view; and even they did not duly con- 
sider the embarrassing fact that, in spite of the 
substitution, the saints are left to endure for 
themselves the visible consequences of sin ; and 



120 STUDIES IN CHKISTIANITY 

this was well calculated to awaken the suspicion 
that perhaps the invisible consequences might 
come around to them also. But the progress of 
theological thought, and the loud protest of the 
moral reason have compelled the abandonment of 
this theory in any literal sense. It is seen in its 
non-literal character. 

Methodist and other Arminian writers have 
generally succeeded in making this point clear; 
and, as a consequence, the view of the atonement 
most in favor with them is some form of the gov- 
ernmental theory, and that, in spite of the fact 
that the language of the Scriptures so largely 
lends itself to the abandoned views. This fact is 
interesting as showing the settled conviction that 
the language of Scripture must be interpreted 
in accordance with our moral reason, no matter 
what it seems to say. It also shows that, for 
Arminians at least, the problem is not one which 
can be solved by dictionaries alone; for the gov- 
ernmental theory is about the last thing the 
dictionary method would evolve from the text of 
Scripture. In fact, no theory departs more widely 
from the literal language of the Bible; and its 
lawyer-like devices appeal neither to the heart 
nor to the conscience. Its non-literal character 
will clearly appear if we take almost any of the 
leading texts on this subject and substitute the 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 121 

conceptions of the rectoral theory. Still it was a 
moral advance upon an immoral or impossible 
literalism. This general fact is especially com- 
mended to the consideration of all those who, 
not having mastered the distinction between the 
fact and the theory of the Saviour's redeeming 
work, are prone to mistake a departure from the 
latter for a rejection of the spirit. No Arminian 
who understands his own position can ever be 
a literalist in this matter. There is all the more 
need of emphasizing this point from the fact 
that popular religious speech, and especially pop- 
ular hymns, are saturated with substitutional 
and sacrificial literalism, and thus the idea is 
easily formed that this is the very gist and 
essence of the gospel. This error is inevitable to 
all who interpret religious speech as the language 
of a dogma or a statute. 

There is, then, no literal substitution of one 
person for another, no literal satisfaction of the 
claims of justice, no literal payment of a debt, no 
literal ransom or redemption, but a work of grace 
on our behalf which may be more or less well de- 
scribed in these terms. One who has been saved 
from sin and restored to righteousness and the 
divine favor may well think of himself as re- 
deemed and ransomed, or as freed from debts he 
could never pay. And he might also well and 



122 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

truly think of his Saviour as having offered him- 
self up as a sacrifice for him, as having died for 
him and redeemed him by his blood. But this is 
the language of emotion, and devotion, and grati- 
tude, and discipleship. It is the language of the 
Christian heart and life, not the language of theo- 
logical theory. To turn it into the mechanical letter 
of theory is to lose the spirit which alone giveth 
life. We have now to inquire into its theoretical 
and theological meaning. 

The theory of ^the atonement has largely been 
vitiated by two prominent mistakes. First, it has 
been discussed in terms of abstractions and in 
very general oversight of the concrete facts of the 
case; and, secondly, the relations of non-moral 
things have been substituted for the relations of 
moral persons. 

The mass of the discussion illustrates the first 
point. Abstract notions of justice and government 
have been put forward as fundamental ; and va- 
rious statements have been made as to what they 
demand. Much of this work was done ad hoc, 
and represented no unsophisticated utterance of 
the moral reason. It was the work of advocates 
rather than of inquirers. The failure to under- 
stand the instrumental and adumbrative nature 
of language led to the fancy that every bold and 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 123 

striking metaphor was a literal fact ; and the spec- 
ulator had to conduct himself accordingly. This 
led to unlimited sophistication of reason and con- 
science. Justice was defined as only a theologian 
could define it. The final cause of the definition 
was to work the theory and catch the sinner. The 
moral nature had few rights which theology was 
bound to respect. The claims of the Divine Sover- 
eign were the supreme thing, and were determined 
in accordance with the political absolutism of the 
time. The Heavenly Father, the God of Love, 
nowhere appears. In his place was a Being very 
jealous for his own honor, and careful to exact the 
uttermost farthing. To be sure, the atonement 
was said to be the work of love, but in its philo- 
sophy love entirely disappeared. The entire oper- 
ation was carried on in a fashion unpleasantly 
suggestive of an almighty Shylock. In addition, 
the makeshifts of human governments, which re- 
sult solely from their imperfection, were taken as 
models for our thought of the divine procedure. 
Thus an indefinite amount of sophistication and 
moral hocus-pocus was introduced into the theory. 
A brief sketch of the history of the discussion 
will illustrate this matter. Before the time of An- 
selm the theory of the atonement had not been elab- 
orated. In the main, Scripture language was used, 
and in the early Church many fruitful glimpses 



124 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of the positive and moral meaning of the Saviour's 
work abound. Christ came not merely to remove 
the curse, but also to give men power to become 
the children of God. God became man that men 
should become divine. But these truths were only 
dimly seen, and were not freed from distorting 
misconceptions and elaborated into systematic 
expression before the collapse of the classical 
civilization. There were some floating notions 
that the need of the atonement rested on the 
veracity of God ; and in cruder minds there was 
a fancy that the devil was a party to the transac- 
tion. He had acquired a right and title in man, 
it seems, by virtue of our sin ; and the work of 
redemption consisted in extinguishing this claim. 
This was often done in a rather doubtful fashion, 
which was excused, however, by the consideration 
that the devil deserved to be defrauded. All of 
this was definitely set aside by Anselm, who left 
out the devil entirely, and brought forward the 
justice of God as the divine attribute which 
demanded a substitutional suffering for man, if 
he were to be redeemed. On this basis the theory 
was built up. 

Sin, Anselm defines as the failure to give God 
his due. By sin a debt of indefinite magnitude is 
incurred. God is defrauded of his due, which is 
especially the honor owed him by his creatures ; 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 125 

and to be just to himself God must conserve this 
honor. This can be done only by the punishment 
of the sinner, or by a suf&cient satisfaction for 
sin. Satisfaction for sin consists in restoring 
what the sinner has taken away, and in making 
due recompense for the dishonor of God arising 
from sin. Of course, man can never make this 
satisfaction, and hence arises the need of the God- 
man, who alone can bring salvation. Throughout 
the discussion three things are confused : the fact 
of the atonement, the theory of the atonement, 
and the theory of the person of the Redeemer. 
The subject is quantitatively and commercially 
conceived ; and the entire discussion goes on so 
abstractly that neither God nor man, as a moral 
being with moral ends, has much interest in 
the case. There is nothing in it that speaks 
clearly and convincingly to the consciousness and 
moral reason of any one. The abstract notions 
of justice, sin, satisfaction are shuffled and 
quantitatively measured against one another ; and 
this is the true theory of the atonement. 

In such crude notions the Christian philosophy 
of the atonement began ; and it has been in un- 
stable equilibrium ever since. How crudely it has 
been managed is familiar to every one acquainted 
with the history of Christian doctrine. Apart from 
the crude and unworthy conceptions of God and 



126 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

his government, borrowed from the undeveloped 
political and ethical philosophy of the time, jus- 
tice was made into something abstract which 
demanded penalty or payment ; and the penalty 
also was made something so abstract that justice 
was quite indifferent who paid it, provided it was 
paid. Thus the thought was reached that justice 
might be satisfied by the pain of a second party ; 
and in this way the possibility of atonement was 
secured. But, then, in order to retain a hold on 
the sinner, it was further held by all but the most 
rigorous logicians that the penalty already once 
exacted from the Redeemer might justly be ex- 
acted again from the sinner. Without this draw- 
back the theory fell into Antinomianism ; and 
with it, it fell into contradiction with itself. 

Thus the theory is full of internal inconsist- 
ency. The atonement is said to be necessary to 
the forgiveness of sins ; but, in truth, when the 
atonement is thus conceived, there is no forgive- 
ness. To demand satisfaction, whether by sub- 
stitution, or otherwise, is to collect the debt or 
inflict the penalty which in forgiveness is for- 
given. But if the debt is paid, or the penalty is 
exacted, there is nothing to forgive. If, after such 
satisfaction, payment or penalty is still demanded, 
we have no forgiveness, but simply a trick where- 
by the debtor and his surety are defrauded, while 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 127 

the creditor gets paid twice. Not even faith could 
be demanded of the sinner on this scheme ; for 
either the lack of faith as a sin is atoned for, or 
else something stands apart from the range of the 
atonement; and this, according to the theory, 
would be a fatal admission. 

Thus forgiveness and even love itself disappear 
so far as the Father is concerned. The love is on 
the part of the Son ; but the Father is simply 
satisfied by paying the debt, and has no further 
claims. A recent religious publication contains a 
good illustration of this result. A preacher repre- 
sents himself as having called on an old saint in 
obscure life, and as having asked her if she did 
not wonder at God's goodness in forgiving her 
sins. To his surprise she replied, No. This seemed 
to him to argue a great insensibihty, and he set 
forth the divine grace, and repeated his question. 
But once more the answer was. No. God, she said, 
was only just in forgiving her sins, since Jesus 
had taken her place, and paid it all. Then the 
preacher discerned, according to his own account, 
that he had been the dull one, and that the old 
saint had entered more deeply than he into the 
meaning of the gospel. Such a ghastly travesty 
of the doctrine of grace is possible only to pro- 
found mental and moral illiteracy. 

Equally confused was the traditional theory as 



128 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

to the relation of Christ to his work whereby he 
became the Saviour of the world. Of course, there 
was a strong tendency to fix attention on the phy- 
sical fact of death and its physical attendants as 
the supreme and essential thing ; and this often 
ran into hysterical excesses from which we are not 
even yet entirely free. But, apart from these, we 
find in the exposition a continual oscillation be- 
tween Christ as literal substitute, whose sufferings 
were a hteral equivalent for the pains due from 
us for our sins, and Christ as having infinite 
merit, which makes us righteous by being trans- 
ferred to us. The notions of merit and satisfaction 
having been distinguished, it became a puzzle to 
know how Christ could have any excess of merit 
which might be transferred to another. The merit 
was supposed to arise from his perfect obedience ; 
but then the query arose whether this obedience 
was not his duty, so that, after all, Christ did no 
more than his duty, and, hence, had no excess of 
merit to transfer. This scruple was met by the dis- 
tinction of active and passive obedience. In the 
former Christ remained vdthin the bounds of his 
obhgation ; but in the latter he transcended re- 
quirement, and this provided a store of merit 
which might be transferred. But the interpretation 
was not constant. Sometimes the passive obedience 
did away with our sin and guilt, and the active 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 129 

obedience secured for us the necessary merit. The 
double obedience became quite a labyrinth of bar- 
ren subtleties. What the transfer of moral merit 
or moral character would mean in any case is, of 
course, an insoluble question ; but these mechan- 
ical thinkers gave little attention to this phase of 
the problem. 

And just as little was the theory thought 
through with reference to God the Father. The 
theorists largely tended to make him the incar- 
nation of justice, and as needing to be propitiated 
by sacrifice and suffering of some kind. This, as 
said, was often carried so far as to miss the love 
of God altogether, in the most flagrant contra- 
diction of Scripture. The Father was full of wrath 
and vengeance, from which he was turned away 
only by the suffering and supplication of the Son. 
This notion crept into the creeds and popular 
hymns, and still appears in the cruder utterances 
of the pulpit. Thus the true order is inverted. 
The love of God to man is made the effect of the 
atonement, whereas the Scriptures represent the 
atonement as the effect of the Father's love. God 
so loved the world that he gave his Son; God 
was in Christ reconciling the world to himself; 
and God in Christ, not God for Christ's sake, for- 
gives us. 

But when this error was avoided, and the 



130 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

Saviour's work was seen to root and rise in the 
Father's love, it was exceedingly difficult to say 
in what the propitiation for sin consisted, or what 
necessity existed for it as any objective fact. 
Certainly the father of the prodigal son did not 
need to propitiate himself or to have any one else 
propitiate him when the repentant prodigal came 
home ; and it is impossible to see any greater diffi- 
culty in God's pardon of men. 

Equally obscure was the objective meaning of 
the propitation made by the Son to the Father. 
No one could tell what it meant when the matter 
was analyzed and clarified. Phrases and terms, 
some Scriptural and some not, abounded; but 
few cared to take them in strict literalness. They 
had to be explained or turned into mysteries 
before they could be adopted. On account of 
these difficulties the holders of the governmental 
theory abandoned the notion of a personal pro- 
pitiation, and made it rectoral. But propitiation 
was a poor term for such a regent's device. It 
satisfied neither the language of Scripture nor 
the mind and conscience of the disciple. The 
truth is, the theorists were bent on saving the 
language, and failed to note its figurative and 
non-absolute character. To persons living in the 
midst of sacrificial customs and conceptions, the 
figure of propitiation would well set forth the re- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 131 

pentance and submission of the sinner, and the 
gracious disposition on the part of God ; and this 
was the underlying truth, and the only truth we 
can find. If we insist on more, we must content 
ourselves with saying propitiation, without 'mean- 
ing anything beyond, possibly, the af&rmation of 
an inscrutable and ineffable mystery; and that 
could be more directly expressed. 

And, then, when the theory was at last ad- 
justed, it still would not work. For the theory, 
such as it was, seemed to imply the removal of all 
the consequences of sin ; and, unluckily, many 
of these visibly remained. In spite of the substi- 
tution, or satisfaction, or expiation, as we have 
said before, the saints, and even the elect, are left 
to endure for themselves the visible consequences 
of sin ; and this is well calculated to awaken 
the suspicion that the invisible consequences also 
may come around to them in the course of time. 
Thus the theory is seen to be mal-adjusted to 
reality. We may still insist on substitution and 
expiation ; but we have to admit that it is a sub- 
stitution which, so far as experience goes, does 
not substitute, and an expiation which does not 
expiate. 

Thus the dialectic of these unrhymed notions 
appears. They are a tissue of inconsistencies aris- 
ing from taking the free and living language of 



132 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

Scripture in a hard, mechanical fashion. And the 
notions themselves are taken in a non-natural sense. 
The abstract justice of this theory exists only in 
the theory. If justice demands anything, it is the 
punishment of the sinner himself. Only a mind 
debauched by theology would ever dream of call- 
ing anything justice which contented itself with 
penalty, no matter who paid it j and only the same 
type of mind could tolerate a justice which de- 
manded or permitted double payment. The worthy 
doctors who speculated in this way were in great 
straits. They thought that they must take Scrip- 
ture language as dogma, and interpret it like a 
statute; and they felt that they must save their 
scheme from its immoral implications. This they 
sought to do by introducing the contradictory 
notion of a conditional satisfaction ; which satis- 
faction became such by being called satisfaction. 
Something of the same abstract and fictitious 
character appears in the governmental theory, 
inaugurated by Grotius and variously elaborated 
since his time. According to this view the diffi- 
culty in forgiving sin does not lie in God himself 
as moral being, but in his rectoral relations as 
governor of the universe. These complicate the 
matter and form the problem. God himself, as 
moral person, needs no propitiation, and justice is 
not incompatible with forgiveness. But as ruler 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 133 

God must magnify the law and make it honor- 
able. Hence the need of the atonement. 

If we take this view abstractly, and interpret it 
in its own terms, we are still in the midst of con- 
fusion. The law must indeed be magnified and 
made honorable; but this cannot be done in the 
forensic fashion which this theory proposes. In 
what way is the law magnified and made hon- 
orable by the suffering of an innocent person 
instead of the transgressor ? In what way would 
such suffering^ reveal God's hatred of sin or his 
love for sinners? Unless the problem be treated 
from the standpoint of vicarious love, such suf- 
fering would argue a blindness or indifference 
to moral distinctions which would be a source of 
terror rather than of confidence. Besides, the 
rectoral dif&culty itself, when inspected, is found 
to be imaginary. It has been the rule to point 
out that human rulers cannot forgive on simple 
repentance, and this has been thought decisive. 
But this is very superficial. Human governors 
must proceed by crude methods because of the im- 
possibility of surely knowing the heart; but even 
here we are rapidly coming to see that when true 
reform is reached, neither government, nor soci- 
ety, nor morality has any interest in further pun- 
ishment. The indeterminate sentence embodies 
this principle or rests upon it. If a community 



134 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

were able to make its unrighteous members right- 
eous, justice would be satisfied to let them go free. 
The real difficulty is not rectoral, but dynamic. 
Forgiveness upon repentance, with the limita- 
tions hereafter to be mentioned, is entirely in 
order. How to produce true moral repentance is 
the real problem. 

Equally misinterpreted were the vicarious fea- 
tures of human life. The innocent suffer on ac- 
count of the guilty, especially in rescuing them 
from the evil case into which they have fallen 
through the transgression of the laws of their 
being. But there is nothing in this of the nature 
of satisfaction, or substitution, or of an example 
which magnifies the law and makes it honorable. 

Vicarious suffering and vicarious sacrifice 
abound in life, owing to the solidarity of life and 
especially to the solidarity of love, but there is 
a world-wide difference between them and vicO' 
rious punishment. The former we all accept as 
love's greatest manifestation ; the latter is the 
caricature by mechanical minds of love's supreme 
manifestation, so as to turn God's grace itself 
into one of the great stumbling-blocks to its ac- 
ceptance. The facts of vicarious sacrifice fit only 
into the moral view of the atonement. Indeed, 
it is clear that unless this question be transferred 
from the field of judicial abstractions to that of 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 135 

concrete moral relations this rectoral theory also 
is hopelessly bad ; and with this transfer it passes 
over into the moral theory. Vicarious suffering 
of the kind just mentioned would be moral ; but 
in any other sense it would reveal neither love, 
nor justice, nor morality of any permissible kind. 

This notion of an " example " for the sake of 
the law is even worse than that of a substitute. 
There is a kind of gloomy, tragic grandeur about 
the latter ; but the former is merely a regent's 
device. It provides no satisfaction for sins com- 
mitted or to be committed; it is only a kind of 
police measure to frighten off future transgres- 
sion. The value of this theory consists in its re- 
volt against the moral scandals and impossibil- 
ities of the satisfaction doctrine whereby it became 
a step in theological progress. But in itself it is 
a halfway measure both exegetically and morally. 
Professor A. A. Hodge speaks of it as " a theat- 
rical inculcation of principles which were not truly 
involved in the case." ^ If grammars and lexicons 
are to settle the question, the rectoral theory is a 
heresy ; and it was long so considered, and is so 
considered even now by a large part of the Chris- 
tian world. A theory for whose enunciation we 
had to wait sixteen hundred years, and which is 
now rejected by great bodies of Christian think- 

1 Quoted by Dr. Hunger in Horace Bushnell, p. 242, note. 



136 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

ers, can hardly be reached by simply reading off 
the text. The language of Scripture is sacrificial, 
substitutional, and satisfactional, and would sound 
strange enough if it were translated into the 
terms of the rectoral theory. Not grammatical 
exegesis but the moral reason is the great source 
of the theory, and to satisfy this reason the theory 
must go farther than it has gone. The reasons 
which produced it are carrying us beyond it. 

These things illustrate the abstract method of 
discussing the atonement, and also warn us 
against it. By that method we reach only confu- 
sion, and lose sight of reason and conscience and 
reality altogether. It is equally dangerous to dis- 
cuss it in terms of things, and not from the stand- 
point of moral persons. The difference is well 
illustrated by the following quotation from Cole- 
ridge : — 

" A sum of .£1000 is due from James to Peter, 
for which James has given a bond. He is insol- 
vent, and the bond is on the point of being put in 
suit against him, to James's utter ruin. At this 
point Matthew steps in, pays Peter the thousand 
pounds, and discharges the bond. In this case 
no man would hesitate to admit that a complete 
satisfaction had been made to Peter. Matthew's 
,£1000 is a perfect equivalent for the sum which 
James was bound to have paid, and which Peter 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 137 

had lent. It is the same thing, and this is alto- 
gether a question of things. Now, instead of 
James being indebted to Peter in a sum of money 
which (he having become insolvent) Matthew 
pays for him, let me put the case that James had 
been guilty of the basest and most hard-hearted 
ingratitude to a most worthy and affectionate 
mother, who had not only performed all the 
duties and tender offices of a mother, but whose 
whole heart was bound up in this her only child, 
... all which he had repaid by neglect, deser- 
tion, and open profligacy. Here the mother 
stands in the relation of the creditor ; and here, 
too, I will suppose the same generous friend to 
interfere, and to perform with the greatest ten- 
derness and constancy all those duties of a grate- 
ful and affectionate son which James ought to 
have performed. Will this satisfy the mother's 
claims on James, or entitle him to her esteem, 
approbation, and blessing ? Or what if Matthew, 
the vicarious son, should at length address her 
in words to this purpose : ^Now I trust you are 
appeased, and will be henceforward reconciled to 
James. I have satisfied all your claims on him. I 
have paid his debt in full ; and you are too just 
to require the same debt to be paid twice over. 
You will, therefore, regard him with the same 
complacency, receive him into your presence with 



138 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

the same love, as if there had been no difference 
between him and you. For I have made it up.' 
What other reply could the swelling heart of the 
mother dictate than this : ' 0, misery ! and is it 
possible that you are in league with my unnatural 
son to insult me ? Must not the very necessity of 
your abandonment of your proper sphere form 
an additional evidence of his guilt? Must not the 
sense of your goodness teach me more fully to 
comprehend, more vividly to feel, the evil in 
him? Must not the contrast of your merits mag- 
nify his demerits in his mother's eye, and at once 
recall and embitter the conviction of the canker- 
worm in his soul ? ' " ^ 

This passage is decisive. It shows how odious 
and abominable are the results when we discuss 
this doctrine in terms of things and apply them 
to the relations of moral persons ; and also how 
utterly impossible it is that any one should ever 
take another's place in his moral relations. It 
would be playing hide-and-seek with intelligence 
and conscience, a series of make-believes and false 
pretenses, a calling of black white, and a pretend- 
ing that it is white when all the while it is black, and 
we know it is black. Turning a black man into a 
white man by putting a white robe on him would 
not be more fictitious. Such is the case with all 

^ Aids to Reflectiouy Aphorism XIV. 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 139 

notions of substitution, transfer of moral quali- 
ties, imputed righteousness, etc., when they are 
literally taken. Thus we see the necessity of con- 
sidering the question from the standpoint of the 
moral personality. Abstractions are illusory and 
fictitious ; and the relations of things are incom- 
mensurable with the relations of persons. 

After so much of abstract and negative criti- 
cism it seems well to remind ourselves of the dis- 
tinction between the atonement as fact and the 
atonement as theory. We still believe and main- 
tain that a great work of grace has been wrought 
for man ; that the Father gave the Son to be the 
Saviour of the world ; that the Son loved us and 
gave himself for us ; and that God was in Christ 
reconciling the world unto himself. Neither do we 
desire to do away with the sacrificial and substi- 
tutional language of the Scriptures, which will 
always have its value for Christian speech. " Rock 
of Ages, cleft for me." " Sacred Head now 
wounded." " Haupt voll Blut und Wunden." 
There is no sign that the Church will ever out- 
grow this speech. But there is need that we 
understand this speech and do not caricature the 
vicarious suffering of Divine Love by turning it 
into the vicarious punishment of theological 
theory. 

Our discussion, then, concerns only the theory 



140 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of our Lord's redeeming work, and here we find 
much to be desired. The traditional theories have 
been an incongruous compound of inconsistent 
speculation and halting exegesis. The speculation 
was never rigorous, but was helped out by the ex- 
egesis ; and the exegesis rested on the fancy that 
Scripture language is that of dogma, and must 
be interpreted like the words of a statute. More- 
over, a good part of the exegesis consisted in 
reading the Scriptures in the light of the tradi- 
tional dogma, thus often reading into them doc- 
trines undreamed of by the Scripture writers them- 
selves. A sufficient illustration is found in the 
fact already mentioned, the making God's love 
the effect of the atonement instead of its cause. 

The total result was something about equally 
obnoxious to reason and conscience on the one 
hand, and to the Scriptures themselves on the 
other. The living revelation of the love of God, 
and the grace of the Lord Jesus, and the sancti- 
fying work of the Holy Spirit, which illumine the 
Scriptures, was replaced by frigid juristic specu- 
lations, lifeless and life-destroying, the despair of 
reason and the opprobrium of faith. And because 
of the failure to distinguish between the fact and 
the theory of the Saviour's work, these specu- 
lations were thought to be the gospel itself. The 
only saving feature of the case was that, in spite 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 141 

of these obscuring mists of theory, the love of 
God nevertheless gleamed through the words of 
Scripture, and a wholesome moral instinct gener- 
ally prevented the theory from working its logical 
results. The same moral instinct enforced the de- 
mand for righteousness, and thus supplemented 
the most grievous lack of the speculation. Mean- 
while, and on the other hand, the critics of the 
traditional theory have often dissolved away both 
the love and righteousness of God into a hazy 
good-nature, with no power to awe or to attract. 
Both extremes are about equally far from the 
truth. 

The necessity of transferring the discussion of 
this doctrine from the realm of juristic abstrac- 
tions to the realm of life and conscience has al- 
ready appeared. Many hints of such a view ap- 
pear in the writings of St. Paul, and since the time 
of Abelard there have been more or less definite 
attempts to construe the atonement as a moral 
process, having for its aim less the canceling of 
debts supposed to be due to justice than the pos- 
itive lifting of men into the life of righteousness. 
This is certainly an aspect of the problem which 
Christian thought will never again consent to lose 
sight of. It is the stone which the traditional 
builders have commonly rejected, whereas in the 



142 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

gradual moralizing of theology which Christian 
progress is bringing about, it is becoming the 
head of the corner. We have now to consider 
whether reflective criticism will allow us to rest in 
this view, or whether it must go along with the 
others. 

And, first of all, it is plain that we must not 
only keep clear of abstractions, but we must also 
discuss the question with regard to our human con- 
ditions. We have no call to consider the relation 
of abstract government to abstract subjects, or 
what might be demanded in the government of 
angels, of whose nature and conditions we know 
nothing, or what penalty should be exacted for 
disobedience wrought in the full light of know- 
ledge, and because of pleasure in the evil. Dis- 
cussing the subject on that abstract basis, we 
should most probably come to the conclusion that 
there can be no forgiveness of sins, and that jus- 
tice could never rest without exacting the full 
penalty from the sinner. But all such questions 
we set aside ; for we really have neither the men- 
tal nor the moral insight needed for such dis- 
cussion. What would be abstractly just in general 
is beyond us ; we must confine ourselves to con- 
sidering concrete cases. The atonement seems 
intelligible only in connection with a developing 
moral world, and would appear to be inadmissible 
in a completely developed moral order. 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 143 

Moreover, our human life is not lived on the 
abstract plane of abstract moral agency. It is a 
life of ignorance and weakness ; a life of crude 
beginnings and shadowy incipiencies ; a life with- 
out insight into itself and without foresight of 
the end ; a life in which power and faculty and 
knowledge and moral sensibility and self-control 
have to be developed ; a Hf e rooted in the animal 
out of which we only slowly and by much trial 
and error emerge; a life largely moulded by 
heredity and environment, and solicited by temp- 
tations from without and within, from above and 
beneath and around. Now, the application of ab- 
stract rectoral and forensic notions to such a 
life is as absurd as it would be in the case o£ 
the family. Manifestly the only possibility of 
getting any conception of the case which will not 
revolt the moral reason lies in replacing the con- 
ception of the Divine Governor by that of the 
Heavenly Father, and the conception of the di- 
vine government by that of the divine family. If 
the dearest and deepest thought of God be that 
he is our Father, then our deepest and truest 
thought of his dealings with us must be deter- 
mined by this conception ; and all other concep- 
tions of whatever kind that will not harmonize 
with this must be cast out. Whatever notions 
of government and justice we may form must be 



144 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

subordinated to the thought of this Divine Father- 
hood of which every other fatherhood in heaven 
or in earth is named. Instead, then, of a Divine 
Ruler anxious mainly for his own claims and 
laws, we have a Divine Father in the midst of his 
human family, bearing with his children and 
seeking by all the discipline of love and law to 
build them into likeness to and fellowship with 
himself. 

The primal demand for the economy of grace 
lies in the form and nature of human development. 
These constitute a claim for fatherly patience, for- 
bearance, and discipline. There could be no more 
ghastly travesty of justice and goodness than 
any abstract forensic procedure would offer. The- 
ology, as we have said, long echoed the political 
absolutism of the time, and regarded God as an 
irresponsible ruler, whereas, from an ethical point 
of view, he is the most deeply obligated being in 
the universe. And having started a race under 
human conditions he is bound to treat it in accord- 
ance with those conditions. God is bound to be 
the great Burden-bearer of our world because of 
his relations to men. We that are strong ought 
to bear the burdens of the weak, is a principle 
of unlimited application. All deahng with the 
moral problem of humanity must regard our hu- 
man circumstances. 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 145 

Further, our development begins on a submoral 
plane. That was not first which was spiritual, but 
that which was animal (psychical), and afterward 
that which was spiritual. Whatever may have been 
true of the first man, this word of Paul's is true 
of his descendants ; and the reported performances 
of even the first man would not seem to set him 
very high in the scale of development. By conse- 
quence, sin itself in many of its aspects is a relic 
of the animal not yet outgrown, a resultant of 
the mechanism of appetite and impulse and reflex 
action for which the proper inhibitions are not 
yet developed ; and only slowly does it grow into 
a conciousness of itself as evil. Thus sin is born ; 
that is, human beings become willful and selfish, 
and willing to do wrong. This may, indeed, go 
to any extreme of malignity, but it would be 
hysteria to regard the common life of men as 
rooting in a conscious choice of unrighteousness. 

Now, given sin in the sense defined, what is to 
be done? As said, it is conceivable that there 
should be orders of being, say first-born sons of 
light, with whom any sin would be fatal. But we 
need not concern ourselves about them. With us 
human beings the case is otherwise. Unless we 
suppose God to have made the world in the dark, 
we must allow that he foreknew and intended to 
have just this developing human world with its 



146 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

necessity for struggling out of the animal into the 
spiritual, out of the mechanical into the free, out 
of the selfish into the loving, out of the earthly 
into the divine. It must be dealt with, therefore, 
under the law of development, and under the law 
of love. Hard-and-fast laws, mechanically imposed 
and mechanically applied, would be unspeakably 
absurd or unspeakably unjust in such an order. 
Tendencies, direction, outcomes, are the impor- 
tant thing ; and judgment must come not at the 
beginning but at the end. 

This is something which formal ethics finds 
difficult ; for this science delights in categorical 
imperatives and abstract relations, and finds it 
hard to adjust itself to a moving moral world 
just as formal logic finds it hard to adjust itself 
to a moving physical world. In both cases, how- 
ever, the adjustment has to be made. The hu- 
man moral world does not exist as something fixed 
and complete ; it is rather becoming. The saints 
are not saved ; they are being saved. The where- 
abouts of a developing being is not so important 
as the direction of his movement ; and his moral 
standing depends not on single and isolated deeds, 
but on the character which he develops. And this 
admits of no mechanical and quantitative measure 
in any case. 

We abandon, then, all theories of an abstract 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 147 

atonement based on abstract considerations of ab- 
stract moral agents and abstract transgression, and 
confine our attention to the concrete and living 
human world. Closet theories have no application 
or value. We are not concerned to find something 
which might be consistent as an abstract ethical 
speculation, but something which will commend 
itself to our moral reason when applied to this im- 
perfect, developing, ignorant, and sinful human 
world. Such a doctrine must be sought in life and 
experience and the moral personality. 

The primal attitude of God toward the hu- 
man world, we have said, must be that of love in 
all the manifold expressions which our human life 
requires. But as this fife develops into the moral 
form, the moral nature makes its demands. It is 
conceivable that God should have made a world 
capable only of sentient and non-moral satisfac- 
tions. The animal world seems to be of this kind. 
In such a world it suffices to furnish the condi- 
tions of animal development and comfort. But if a 
moral world is to exist, the moral nature must pre- 
scribe its form and imperative conditions. And one 
thing on which the moral nature is categorical and 
unyielding is that moral good and moral evil shall 
not be treated alike. It would be the overthrow 
of the moral universe to hold that moral evil could 
ever be ignored as indifferent or treated as if it 



148 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

were good. Now, we are in the world of moral 
persons, and here we come upon a real moral dif- 
ficulty which demands consideration, one which 
has formed the real strength of the theories of 
the atonement that have demanded some sort 
of satisfaction as a condition of forgiveness, al- 
though they failed rightly to apprehend the na- 
ture of the demand. 

The essential moral fact in this matter is that 
if God is to forgive unrighteous men some way 
must be found of making them righteous. This 
difficulty is not forensic but moral. It does not 
spring from rectoral complications, but from the 
moral nature itself. To forgive wicked men while 
they remain wicked would be immoral. The fun- 
damental problem is to find a way whereby the 
righteous God can make righteous the ungodly ; 
and this cannot be secured by calling or declar- 
ing them righteous, but only by a spiritual trans- 
formation. Some dim insight into this fact under- 
lies the highly obscure traditional conceptions of 
the relation of justification to regeneration ; and 
this fact misunderstood has been the real strength 
of the demand for some kind of satisfaction as a 
condition of forgiveness. With the tendency of 
uncritical thought to mistake distinctions for divi- 
sions, the several aspects of salvation have been 
made into separate processes, and an "order of 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 149 

salvation " has been laid down, to depart from 
which would be heresy. Much of this trouble 
arises from viewing the subject from the judicial 
rather than the moral and vital standpoint. From 
the former, penalties are externally attached, and 
might be externally remitted; but from the latter, 
penalties are organically connected with Hfe and 
conscience, and demand regeneration as well as 
absolution. 

The problem, then, must be concretely consid- 
ered, and from the human standpoint. And here, 
again, in order not to lose ourselves in abstrac- 
tions, we must recur to the concrete life once 
more. We cannot too resolutely keep to the 
world of actual experience. We observe, then, 
that our moral life is not something going on in 
a vacuum by itself and without relation to the 
system of law and reality. It is conceivable that 
there should be a life with only abstract moral 
contents and adapted to an abstract moral pro- 
bation. This is the kind of life which the abstract 
theorists seem to have in mind when they make 
theories of the atonement. But our life is alto- 
gether different. It roots in and grows out of the 
natural life of sense and impulse and desire ; and 
it is geared throughout with the world of natural 
law and uniform sequence. The moral life ab- 
stractly considered deals only with will and mo- 



150 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

tive ; but the moral life concretely considered 
deals with the whole system of law and conse- 
quence besides. And the concrete moral life is 
the only reality ; and its aim is not simply to be 
formally good, but to attain unto largeness and 
richness and fullness of life itself. The abstract 
moral form is but the form ; the contents are 
life, ever more abundant and glad and blessed. 

This order of law and consequence exists as the 
foundation of our life. And this fact compels us 
to transfer the whole question of salvation from 
the realm of fictitious forensic abstractions and 
barren legalities to the realm of living natural 
and moral law. It is not a question of courts, but 
of life; not a question of abstract rules, but of 
the solid structure of reality. We have not to 
deal with arbitrary enactments, with penalties 
arbitrarily attached, but rather with constitutional 
law; that is, with law wrought into the consti- 
tution of things, and executing itself with the 
inevitability of gravitation. Any real solution of 
the problem must be sought from this point of 
view. We exchange, then, the forensic standpoint 
of external enactments for that of organic law. 

And this fact enables us to make another distinc- 
tion of great importance for the understanding of 
this matter of forgiveness and salvation. The moral 
life is now seen to involve two elements : relations 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 151 

of will, and a set of organic consequences. The 
two interpenetrate, but are nevertheless distinct. 
The former represents the attitude of the will; 
the latter is independent of volition, and repre- 
sents the stored-up and incarnated outcome of 
conduct in the world of law. The existence and 
continuity of this order of law are absolutely 
necessary to any rational and moral system ; and 
any tenable doctrine of forgiveness must be ad- 
justed to it. 

There is a great deal in this order of conse- 
quence which is mysterious to us. Why the con- 
sequences of physical wrong-doing should be 
what they are is quite beyond us. The special 
forms and intensity of discord introduced into 
our faculties by sin, the peculiar weakening and 
depolarization of the moral nature itself resulting 
from conscious wickedness — all these points are 
involved in great obscurity. We must believe, 
however, that they are no random effects, but 
represent the moral judgment and wisdom of the 
Almighty. 

We now return to the question of forgiveness. 
In the personal field evil-doing is followed by the 
displacence of moral beings, whether the deed be 
against ourselves or others. The attitude of the 
moral will is this personal displacence toward the 
offender. Forgiveness would mean the removal 



152 STUDIES m CHRISTIANITY 

of this displacence and the restoration of the 
offender to harmonious relations of will again. 
The condition of such forgiveness would be true 
repentance, that is, a heartfelt repudiation and 
condemnation of the deed, and a purpose to 
rectify the wrong done so far as possible. With 
God and man alike such repentance should re- 
move personal displacence and restore the of- 
fender to harmonious relations of will with the one 
sinned against. There is nothing now in the atti- 
tude of his will which calls for condemnation. 
But this would not end the matter; for in the 
other field of law and outcome forgiveness does 
not cancel consequences. The spendthrift may 
be forgiven, but his property is gone. The abuse 
of health may be forgiven, but the broken con- 
stitution remains. No forgiveness, no pardon, can 
recall the wasted years, or bring back the vanished 
opportunity, or make the past never to have been, 
or escape its entail of evil. Experience gives no 
hint of pardon such as this. 

In this realm of constitutional law the utmost 
we may hope for is that consequences may be 
eliminated by bringing in other laws, as health 
eliminates disease. And in order to any effective 
forgiveness it is necessary that the system of law 
shall be such that restorative or countervailing 
agencies shall exist whereby the evil tendency may 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 153 

be prevented from becoming fatal, or from con- 
tinuing forever. As provision is made in the phy- 
sical system for restoring equilibrium when the 
disturbance is not too great, or as provision is 
made in the living organism for the elimination 
of disease within certain limits , so provision must 
be made in the moral system for moral recovery. 
Otherwise there can be no moral system under 
human conditions. Without such provision the 
system would be in unstable equilibrium, and 
would be hopelessly overthrown at the first dis- 
turbance of its balance. In a forensic system, 
where penalty is externally attached, forgiveness 
might end the matter, but in an organic and vital 
system forgiveness is nothing without cure. What 
would the forgiveness of a self -induced fever 
mean? 

We have, then, an unchangeable system of law, 
not forensic, but expressed in the nature of things, 
as the precondition of any moral and intelligible 
order. And this system must be looked upon as 
an expression of the divine goodness and right- 
eousness; and being such, it must be without va- 
riableness or shadow of turning. No arbitrariness 
can be admitted here. Thus we come in sight of 
a fixed system of law to which all our conceptions 
of forgiveness have to be adjusted. And it would 
be more tolerable to the moral nature to deny out- 



154 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

right the possibility of forgiveness than to allow 
this system to be tampered with in such a way as 
to treat good and evil alike^ or to introduce arbi- 
trariness into the divine procedure. 

And here is the truth, and the only truth, in 
the traditional philosophies of the atonement, the 
claim that sin itself can never be treated as a mat- 
ter of indifference, and that its forgiveness can 
never be a subject of arbitrary volition. There are 
moral conditions to be regarded which are of ab- 
solute obligation. But while these philosophies 
have rightly held this truth, they have by no means 
succeeded in rationally satisfying the demands in 
question. They have insisted that the conse- 
quences of sin cannot be canceled without an 
atonement, but have signally failed to see that 
they are not canceled even with an atonement. 
Their occupation with fictitious forensic conse- 
quences has prevented their seeing the world of 
concrete consequences. 

An opposite error of the sentimentalists must 
be noticed at this point as resting upon the same 
oversight of the system of organic consequences. 
We might well fancy, in some moment of moral 
deliquescence or of half vision, that there ought 
to be absolute forgiveness upon repentance, with 
relaxation of all penalty. This notion would root 
in the nervous sensibility rather than in the moral 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 155 

reason. In the root sense of the word, it would 
be pathological rather than moral. Its plausibility 
rests upon oversight of the distinction between 
forgiveness as the removal of personal displacence, 
and forgiveness as the canceling of natural or- 
ganic consequences. The sentimentalist fails to 
see that consequences are not forgiven. He also 
fails to see that as God's laws are founded in love 
and wisdom, there can be no departure from them. 
There are conditions for everything in the divine 
order, and a road to every place. If we wish the 
thing, we must fulfill the conditions. If we would 
reach the place, we must travel the road. We 
shall never get wheat by planting weeds ; and 
just as little shall we reap to the spirit if we sow 
to the flesh. Imagine the folly of one who should 
say, " I sowed weeds, but I expect wheat ; for I 
have repented since then, and I trust I shall have 
wheat when the time comes." Such is his folly 
who in a world of law expects to reap what he 
has not sown, or to escape from reaping what he 
has sown. It is God's purpose to have and to bless 
only a world wherein dwelleth righteousness. How- 
ever inconvenient we may find it, and however 
strong our desire for sport may be, the unright- 
eous must come to grief ; and God will never de- 
part from his moral laws to make it otherwise. 
And let all the people say. Amen. It would be 



166 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

insufferable to suppose that God, having de- 
sired a holy world and failed to reach it, should 
then content himself with making the unholy 
happy. 

Furthermore, the sentimentalist conceives re- 
pentance very superficially. In fact, true repent- 
ance is so difficult and takes such deep hold on 
the moral nature that not without reason is re- 
pentance itself spoken of as the gift of God. 
Mere regret, especially in the face of penalty, is 
not moral at all ; least of all is it any ground 
for forgiveness. The fear that haunts every 
thoughtful mind at this point is, that there will 
never be any truly moral repentance. The sorrow 
of the world is easy enough, but the godly sorrow 
that worketh a change of mind is not so easy nor 
so common. We may well believe that true re- 
pentance is followed by forgiveness, but the prob- 
lem how to produce such repentance remains 
unsolved ; and this is one of the greatest practi- 
cal difficulties in the case. 

This distinction between forgiveness as the re- 
moval of personal displacence and forgiveness as 
the cancehng of natural consequences deserves 
emphasis ; for there are many cmde and immoral 
notions in popular religious thought respecting 
what forgiveness does. These are illustrated by 
that odious fancy which one often comes upon 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 157 

in religious circles, that the best adjustment be- 
tween this world and the next would be to sin as 
long as possible and repent just in time to escape 
the penalty. Such a notion has no warrant in 
experience, is hateful to conscience, and is most 
unseemly in the face of unchanging law; and 
one holding this notion should consider that true 
repentance is thereby made impossible, and that 
forgiveness does not cancel consequences. 

Notions of this kind spring from the abstract 
conception of the atonement. Sin is supposed to 
constitute an abstract debt to abstract justice; 
and this debt is canceled by the atonement. The 
necessity of personal righteousness and the world 
of inflexible law are lost sight of ; and these im- 
moral fancies result. But they vanish forever 
when we view the subject from the concrete, eth- 
ical standpoint. So long as any one wishes to be 
saved not from sin but from the penalty of sin 
there can be no salvation for him. He knows nei- 
ther the Scriptures nor the moral reason. True 
salvation is from sin, not from penalty. It means 
deliverance from the sinful life and establishment 
in the life of active righteousness, which is the 
only possible condition of fellowship with the 
Holy God. Only the pure in heart can see God 
or have fellowship with him. Yet so inverted are 
our notions on this matter that a large part of 



158 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

religious effort seems to be directed to saving 
men from hell rather than from sinning, and to 
getting men to heaven instead of recovering them 
to holiness of heart and life — a frightful heresy 
in both faith and practice. It is even to be sus- 
pected that not a little of popular zeal for the tra- 
ditional views of the atonement rests at bottom on 
the secret fancy that in some way the atonement 
enables us to escape the stringent necessity of per- 
sonal righteousness. In some way we are to be 
" let off," and Christ's "finished work" is to pass 
as a substitute for our own effort. In that case it is 
only a specification of the general mechanical ten- 
dency in religion, whereby men seek to avoid the 
narrow way of spiritual life. Men are ready to be- 
lieve and do anything which promises to absolve 
them from girding themselves for strenuous and 
holy Hving. To detect the presence of this ten- 
dency in this matter we need only ask ourselves 
what we really desire from God. Is it the forgive- 
ness of sins, restoration to the divine favor, and 
God's help in holy living? All of this is provided 
for by the gospel. But if it be anything else, as 
escape from consequences or relaxation of moral 
demands, we are using the grace of God as a 
cloak for iniquity and an incitement to sin. This 
is the heresy of heresies. The love of God, like 
parental love, takes the will for the deed, bears 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 159 

with weakness and imperfection, avails itself of 
all the resources of discipline, and waits for de- 
velopment ; but if any one regardeth iniquity in 
his heart, the wrath of God abideth on him ; and 
any doctrine to the contrary is a heresy. 

The sins of the world, then, may not be ignored; 
neither may they be taken away by mere sover- 
eignty. The problem is a moral one and must re- 
ceive a moral solution. And the solution must be 
sought in accordance with God's fundamental 
purpose in our human world. That purpose is to 
have a family of spiritual children, made in his 
image and likeness, who shall know him and love 
him, and upon whom he may bestow himself in 
blessing for ever and ever. And the method of 
procedure is that of growth and development. 
There are animal beginnings with moral endings. 
Love and law are omnipresent throughout the 
whole of the work; and judgment is possible only 
at the end. 

God's supreme aim is to secure the love and 
obedience and sympathy and filial confidence of 
his children. On the human side the response is 
slow. As in the earthly family, there is a long 
period of irresponsiveness, ignorance, willfulness, 
and even of rebellion ; and as the earthly father 
bears with this, waits for development, and seeks 
by all the resources of love and correction and 



160 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

discipline to bring the child to the filial insight 
and the filial spirit, so the Heavenly Father bears 
with his children and seeks to bring them to a 
recognition of his presence and purpose in their 
lives, and to a filial acceptance of, and coopera- 
tion with, his purpose. They must be recovered 
from their willful and evil ways, from their dis- 
trust and ahenation also, and given power to 
become the children of the Highest. Any work 
which did not secure this, which left men in their 
alienation and rebellion, might conceivably satisfy 
a fictitious justice; but it would never satisfy the 
Father's heart. To treat men as righteous when 
they are not righteous would involve the deepest 
depths of mental and moral confusion. The only 
effective atonement for sin must o&iST?fci« salva- 
tion from sin and restoratlbp to righteousness. 
Nothing else could satisfy God or man. 

How, then, are the sins of the world to be 
taken away? This question in a forensic sense 
we dismiss altogether as being fictitious. In the 
practical sense the meaning is better expressed in 
another form: How are ignorant, weak, willful, 
sinful men to be recovered from unrighteousness 
and developed into the life of God? This is the 
real problem for which we must seek a concrete 
moral solution. Mere power can do nothing. Mere 
volition is inadmissible. It is either a moral solu- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 161 

tion or none. It is a question of moral goodness 
and of moral dynamics with which juristic ab- 
stractions have nothing to do. 

Here comes in the work of Christ as a neces- 
sary part of the work of grace. God's supreme 
resource must lie in himself and in the revelation 
of himself. God must be revealed as a moral 
being and in such a way as to make forever sure 
both his love and his holiness, and to furnish the 
supreme incentive to repentance and righteous- 
ness and love on the part of men. This is done 
by the incarnation of the Divine Son, who reveals 
the heart of the Father, not in word but in deed, 
so that God is manifest in the flesh for the salva- 
tion of men. And in the fullness of his devotion 
the Divine Son enters into human limitations, 
lives the perfect life before men, shows God's 
thought for men, comes into contact with our sin 
also, submits to its outrage and violence, and be- 
comes obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross. 

Now, two things are forever clear for all who 
receive this faith ; First, that God will never de- 
part from his moral laws in order to make men 
happy or to save men in their sins. They must 
be saved morally if saved at all. Secondly, the 
love and grace of God are set on high forever ; 
and now every one that thirsteth may take of the 



162 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

water of life. This is the specific meaning of the 
Redeemer's work. It was not a fictitious hag- 
gling with abstract and fictitious justice. It was 
Infinite Love going forth to seek and to save the 
lost. It was the father of the prodigal going in 
search of his boy. It was the Good Shepherd 
giving his life for the sheep ; not, of course, at 
the demand of justice, but at the instance of di- 
vine love. This is the true vicariousness of love, 
of sympathy, of the living moral reason, not an 
abstract and fictitious vicariousness which no one 
can understand or find any place for in an unso- 
phisticated conscience. 

Thus the righteousness of God is set forth and 
forever demonstrated. If God were simply a being 
of good nature, and without interest in the right- 
eousness of his creatures, he could easily make 
them happy by mere power and at no cost to 
himself or any one else. This is the sentimen- 
talist's notion of what ought to be. This notion 
is forever vacated by the cross of Christ. God 
will be at infinite cost to save men, but he will 
save them morally or not at aU. It is a moral 
world in which we live ; and we are under the 
inexorable law of righteousness. There is no pro- 
vision made for relaxing moral demands, or for 
" letting sinners off." The promised land is only 
for those who attain unto the spirit of righteous- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 163 

ness. The willful and disobedient may wander in 
the desert forever ; they cannot enter in. The 
only hope for sinners consists in their being saved 
from sinning, and in being recovered from their 
alienation from God and righteousness, which is 
the essence of sin and perdition. There is and 
can be no other salvation which the moral reason 
will accept. The work of Christ, as thus morally 
conceived, demonstrates, we repeat, the righteous- 
ness of God. 

And not only is the righteous God thus re- 
vealed, but we also see God's great method for 
making righteous the ungodly. We see the reve- 
lation of righteousness, and we also see divine 
love in divine condescension and sacrifice in order 
to win men from unrighteousness and raise them 
to the righteous life, to do away with their es- 
trangement and misunderstanding, and bring 
them into filial fellowship with their God and 
Father. This is the great meaning of the work of 
Christ. In this way the righteousness of God is 
declared, and the just God becomes the justifier 
of the ungodly; that is, the righteous God helps 
the ungodly to become righteous. Thus God was 
and is in Christ reconciling the world unto him- 
self. And the work of Christ himself, so far as it 
was an historical event, must be viewed not merely 
as a piece of history, but also as a manifestation 



164 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of that cross which was hidden in the divine love 
from the foundation of the world, and which is 
involved in the existence of the human world at 
all. 

And is this all there is in the atonement? In 
reply, we say we no longer care to use the word 
atonement, as it has become misleading or uncer- 
tain through long association with doubtful theo- 
logical theories. But this is all there is in the work 
of Christ to which we can give articulate and ten- 
able expression. If any one chooses or feels a need 
for something more, it is open to him to say that 
there are back-lying mysteries in the divine nature 
which transcend this view. To this we should have 
no objection, if we were allowed to add that they 
also transcend all the traditional views. These 
transcendental mysteries cannot be expressed in 
terms of the satisfaction and substitution theories 
without contradicting our moral reason. They 
cannot be expressed in terms of the governmental 
theory without impressing us with a sense of fic- 
tion. As we have before pointed out, all these 
views oscillate between an untenable literalism in 
exegesis and a freer interpretation of the language 
of Scripture. Whoever departs from any of these 
views is reproached with departing from the teach- 
ings of Scripture. Thus the holder of the govern- 
mental view is charged with ignoring the teach- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 165 

ings of the word ; and he in turn makes the same 
charge upon the holder of the moral and vital 
theory of the atonement. But in fact this only 
shows their failure to grasp their own position. 
No one holds to a strictly literal interpretation 
of Scripture language, except when he has a po- 
lemic on hand, or wishes to make a charge of 
heresy. The satisfaction of the satisf actionist is 
one which does not satisfy. The substitution of 
the substitutionist is one which does not sub- 
stitute. The justice of the rectoral theory is 
unhke any justice recognized by the unsophis- 
ticated moral reason. The satisfaction and the 
substitution and the justice have to be manip- 
ulated until they mean what they may be allowed 
to mean according to the exigencies of the theory, 
but what no one would ever think they meant 
who relied solely on the ordinary usage of lan- 
guage. 

It is, then, open to any one, as we have said, to 
hold that there are back-lying mysteries in the di- 
vine nature which transcend the view we have set 
forth. Such a claim would be quite in line with 
our own insistence on the relative and adumbra- 
tive character of all our thinking on things divine. 
But we must insist also, and once more, that these 
mysteries equally transcend all the traditional 
views. They must be left unexpressed, therefore, 



166 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

beyond the point to which the view set forth 
carries us; and in any case this view must be 
included in any theory of the subject. It may be 
inadequate, but it is true as far as it goes. What- 
ever we may believe concerning superethical ne- 
cessities in the case, they will never justify us in 
contradicting ethics. Theology may conceivably 
transcend the intuitions of conscience, but it may 
never contradict the enlio^htened conscience. The 
doctrine of the atonement, then, must lie at least 
partially in the moral field, and all of it must be 
harmonious with the moral reason. No conception 
of God in this matter will do which puts him be- 
low the moral heroes of humanity, and even below 
the daily self-sacrifice of the family. No theory 
will do which views God as without obligation, 
or as needing propitiation, or as being pro- 
pitiated by a quantum of suffering. No abstract 
theory of the relation of abstract attributes, re- 
sulting in an abstract righteousness which leaves 
the living man as unrighteous as ever, with the 
necessity on the part of God either of letting 
man fall helplessly back into unrighteousness 
or of treating men as righteous when they are 
not — no such theory will longer command the 
thought and conscience of men; and for the 
sufficient reason that every such theory is at 
bottom irrational and immoral. 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 167 

It must be noted, too, that the conception set 
forth has become practically the working view of 
the Church, so far as it is alive. We have come to 
see that the important thing is to save men from 
sin, and we are sure that consequences will take 
care of themselves if this can be done. And in 
doing this we fall back on Christ's revelation of 
the Father, on his summons to repentance and 
discipleship and his promises of forgiveness and 
divine renewal. 

And if one should say, " Well, if that is all ; 
if the sole work of Christ was to reveal the Father 
and bring men to God, what need was there for 
his life and sufferings and death?" the answer 
would be: How otherwise could the Father be 
effectively and dynamically revealed ? Love is 
poorly revealed in words ; it demands deeds for 
its true revelation. No proclamation of words, 
though attended by never so many miracles, no 
writing spread across the sky, could make any 
such living revelation of God and his character 
as is made in the incarnation and life of our Lord. 
And the revelation which he made derives its deep 
significance, not from what he said, nor from what 
he did, but from what he was. The incarnation 
is the central truth of Christianity ; and the incar- 
nation is the essential fact of the atonement. But 
instead of saying that this is all there is in the 



168 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

work of Christ, we should rather say, All this is 
in the work of Christ. And where, in earth or in 
heaven, is there anything great besides? 

But where are our sins in the mean time ? All 
that has been said at best seems to point only to 
the possibility of reformation, and does not look 
to the atonement for our past sins ; yet this is 
the most important matter of all. This difficulty 
is partly fictitious, and in so far results from con- 
sidering the subject from an abstract forensic 
standpoint. The law claims our perfect obedience 
at all times, it is said ; and hence no later obedi- 
ence can possibly atone for earlier disobedience. 
This, then, must always remain against us on 
the books of justice. How artificial all this is ap- 
pears when we apply it to the case of the family. 
The father of the prodigal son, for instance, did 
not, after the feast was over, distress himself 
about the debt of filial duty which remained 
unpaid. And we may be sure that the Father in 
heaven will not unduly concern himself about 
the debt of the past when his prodigals return to 
their Father's house. To entertain such a notion 
is to leave the category of moral persons for that 
of things again. Love has no difficulty with the 
problem and only love can solve it. 

But still, we may say, there is a debt which re- 
mains even after forgiveness. This is true. Some- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 169 

thing indeed remains, but it is not well conceived 
as a debt to be paid in any commercial sense. It 
would be more exact to say that sinners, rather 
than sins, are forgiven. It is inverted and me- 
chanical to ^x our thought on the sin instead of 
the sinner. Nothing would be gained if all sins 
were forgiven and the evil will remained. This 
recalls our distinction between the moral displa- 
cence which must be visited upon the evil will 
and the natural consequences which result from 
its indulgence. The forgiveness of the sinner in- 
volves the removal of the former, but not of the 
latter. They are never forgiven so far as experi- 
ence shows, and never ought to be forgiven. Of 
course, they do not remain as a set of legal and 
forensic liabilities; but they remain as effects in 
a system of natural law. They can only be elim- 
inated, as we have said, by bringing restorative 
influences into play. When the moral displacence 
of the Holy God is removed in the case of the 
repentant sinner, a great deal of work still re- 
mains to be done with reference to the past. 
And God presents himself as ready to cooperate 
with the sinner in working out a better future 
which shall in some measure undo the past and 
cut off its entail of evil. The utmost we can hope 
for is, that the system may be so ordered as to pro- 
vide for recovery, and for our undoing or elim- 



170 STUDIES m CHRISTIANITY 

mating the wrong and mischief that have gone 
forth from us. And this we ought supremely to 
desire. What sort of a moral being would he 
be who could rest content, even in Abraham's 
bosom, if he knew there was anywhere any one 
suffering a hard and bitter lot because of his evil- 
doing ? And what sort of a moral being would he 
be whose deepest desire was not to have a chance 
anywhere and anyhow to remedy every evil which 
had gone forth from him ? Any permissible doc- 
trine of forgiveness must be construed in ac- 
cordance with these considerations. Otherwise, 
forgiveness itself becomes immoral, and the desire 
for forgiveness becomes an expression of that 
very selfishness which Christ came to destroy. 

Am I, then, never to get clear of my past? 
That depends on the meaning. Through the grace 
and gracious help of God I may get clear of the 
sinful life and emerge into the life of the spirit. 
The healing and restoring resources of God are 
great, and thus I may hope at last to remove the 
scars and undo the evil. But that the past should 
be made nonexistent, or memory blotted out, or 
the entail of consequences arbitrarily cut off, this 
is not to be hoped for, because it ought not to be. 
We can make new departures, but we must start 
from where we are. We can begin again, but 
never at the beginning. The past always has a 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 171 

mortgage on the future. This is self-evident as 
soon as we transfer the problem from the realm 
of fictitious or abstract forensic claims to the 
concrete world of organic law and consequence. 
And as this is the real world, we must adjust our 
theories and our hopes to it. Certainly, as we 
have said before, visible and experienced conse- 
quences are not forgiven; how, then, can we 
claim that any consequences will be forgiven, 
except in the sense of overcoming and eliminat- 
ing them? Long, long regret must haunt many 
a forgiven soul; and there are sins against love 
and trust so dark and base that only the sight of 
him of the pierced hands and the bleeding side 
persuades us they ever can be forgiven. Paul 
remembered his persecution of the Church unto 
the end of his life, calling himself the chief of 
sinners on that account, and saying that he 
obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in 
unbelief. 

We reach then the following conclusions: All 
thought of literal substitution, satisfaction, pay- 
ment of debt is morally impossible. Forensic and 
governmental difficulties are fictitious except as 
modes of expression. Abstractions throw no light 
upon the real problem. The venue must be 
changed from supposed enactments to natural 
laws; and from the evolutional form of the moral 



172 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

life judgment must be put at the end and not at 
the beginning". Then every one goes to his own 
place, to the place which he has chosen, and for 
which he has fitted himself. In this matter, also, 
there can be no arbitrary volition. What the 
eternal moral reason prescribes, that is what must 
finally be. Some of the earher theorizers about 
justice, meaning thereby the moral reason, were 
not so much wrong in their contention as to its 
inexorable demands, as they were in ignoring 
the fact of development and putting the demand 
at the wrong end. Meanwhile God has revealed 
himself in his Son as our Father, as bearing us 
upon his heart, and as supremely desirous of 
saving us from the sinful life which must end 
in death if persisted in, and recovering us to 
righteousness and the filial spirit. For this the 
Divine Son has given himself; for this the Holy 
Spirit came and comes; and the work of both 
the Son and the Spirit roots in the Father's love. 
But in all this the aim is not to satisfy the 
demands of justice, nor yet to save men from 
penalty, but to save men from sinning, to lift 
them Godward, and to bring them to that spirit- 
ual attitude which will make it possible for God 
to bestow himself upon them in infinite and eter- 
nal blessing. As we have so often said, it is not 
a problem in forensic technicalities, but in spirit- 
ual dynamics. 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 173 

NoWj what shall we call this view ? It is really 
no matter what we call it, provided the thing be 
understood ; but the proper title is the moral view ; 
that is, the view which seeks to understand the 
Saviour's work by the principles and analogies 
of the ethical realm rather than by those of the 
governmental and juristic realm. There is consid- 
erable criticism of what is called the " moral-in- 
fluence theory " of the atonement scattered about 
in theological treatises, but it is superficial and 
unsatisfactory. The title itself is a bad one, as 
failing to suggest the eternal love and eternal 
working which underlie the life and salvation of 
men, and of which the earthly work of the Ke- 
deemer is only a part and as it were a sample. 
The Father worketh hitherto and I work, is as 
valid now as when it was first uttered. No theory 
which exhausts itself in anything so impersonal 
as an " influence " or an " example " will be very 
effective. But the title and the criticism alike fail 
to grasp or express the depth and breadth of the 
true moral theory. 

In the work of Christ the love and righteous- 
ness of God find their supreme revelation. Here 
we have the final illustration and demonstration 
of what God is and what he means for men. But 
here again it is easy for us to fall back once more 
into mechanical and juridical thinking. We may 



174 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

think of a store of merit acquired for men, in 
which they are to share, so that nothing now re- 
mains but to bestow this merit upon men, puz- 
zhng ourselves meanwhile how the bestowment is 
made, and how it is conferred upon infants and 
imbeciles, and invincible ignorance, and those who 
never had a chance. The attempt to answer these 
questions has led to some highly artificial fancies 
and some very doubtful inferences. First of all, 
we have the mechanical or magical application of 
this merit through the performance of some rite 
or utterance of some formula. Or we have a 
highly artificial scheme for saving the babies from 
the wrath of God and making them sharers in the 
benefits of the atonement. Or we have a set of 
doubtful inferences concerning future probation 
and what will take place there. Such notions are 
mainly mechanical solutions of mechanical dij6&- 
culties generated by mechanical thinking ; and 
they disappear when we think of the love of God 
and the grace of the Lord Jesus, and remember 
that it is this God and this Saviour with whom 
we have to do. We need no theory to assure us 
that our race in all its members is safe in their 
hands. Jesus' revelation of the Father puts this 
beyond doubt forever, and we must not allow 
mechanical theorizers to obscure the fact. 

In this ethical and spiritual way the work of 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 175 

Christ which we call the atonement is to be un- 
derstood. However much more we may put into 
it, in the way of ineffable mysteries, the features 
dwelt upon must not be left out. As an intel- 
ligible working theory they must form the gist 
of the doctrine. We must take the work of grace 
as a whole, and must note that its essential aim 
is to save men from sinning and to lift them into 
the life of the Spirit. With this understanding, 
we may retain the traditional language as a mode 
of expression, or as much of it as is adapted to 
modern Christian thought ; but we must not turn 
it into a theological theory. This is the letter that 
has killed, and still killeth. We must also note 
that in the better view the divine love is not de- 
nied or diminished, but rather freed from obscur- 
ing misconceptions. Again, we must note that 
the way of life is the same it always has been. 
We must repent and forsake our sins, and become 
the disciples of the Lord Jesus, if we would enter 
into life. He is still our Redeemer and the way 
by which we come to God. Whatever mystery 
there may be in the Saviour's work, trust and 
discipleship are all that is needed for securing 
its benefits. This must be borne in mind in our 
preaching. Neither philosophy nor theology can 
save us. We must proclaim the love of God the 
Father, the gracious work of Christ the Son, the 



176 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

forgiveness of sins, and the sanctifying work of 
the Holy Spirit which Christ has made known; 
and we must summon men to discipleship and 
obedience in his name. To do this is to preach 
the atonement in its practical significance, and to 
escape the intellectual and moral scandals with 
which theory has long burdened it. 

These abstract and mechanical conceptions of 
the atonement have led to correspondingly ab- 
stract and mechanical conceptions of the closely 
allied topics of salvation and faith, and especially 
of salvation by faith. For the full clearing up of 
our thought, it seems well to consider these sub- 
jects also, in the hope of reaching a concrete moral 
conception in line with our previous study and in 
harmony with the moral reason. 

Grace, not faith, is the deepest factor in our 
salvation. It is the grace of God on which every- 
thing else depends, and which gives value to 
everything else. Hence the formula given by St. 
Paul, " By grace are ye saved, through faith." Here 
grace is made fundamental, and faith is only in- 
strumental or conditional. The salvation is not of 
ourselves ; it is the gift of God. It is not of our 
good and meritorious works, lest any man should 
boast. Grace, then, is the source of our salvation, 
and by faith we enter into it. This is a wholesome 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 177 

doctrine and very full of comfort ; but this doc- 
trine also^ when mechanically understood, may 
become an intellectual and moral scandal. 

First of all, it is clear that all finite beings, 
even the first-born sons of light, stand only in the 
grace of God. They have nothing which has not 
been given them ; they depend continuously upon 
God for their life and all their powers ; and if 
they should estimate their value to God from the 
low standpoint of quantitative profit and loss, 
they could only say, " We are unprofitable ser- 
vants." And that which is true of the first-born 
sons of light is truer still of the children of men. 
If we had kept all the commandments, we should 
still be unprofitable servants. And when to this 
we add our record of unfaithfulness, wayward- 
ness, wickedness, we see that we are not only un- 
profitable servants, but sinners also, whose only 
hope must lie in the divine grace. 

Any value, then, which the world of finite spirits 
may have depends primarily and essentially, not 
on the merit and worth of their service, but on 
the divine love, in which they live and move and 
have their being. All we can do is to love and 
trust and obey ; and the love of God does all the 
rest. It takes the will for the deed, and finds the 
suf&cient service in love itself. 

Such a relation is quite unintelligible on the 



178 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

plane of profit and loss, when coarsely estimated 
by the standard of things; but we understand 
it readily from the side of the family life. Profit 
and loss have no place here, but only the incom- 
mensurable relation of parental and fiHal love. 
A father does not value his child for what 
he can make out of it considered as a financial 
investment or speculation ; he values it as his 
child. We are struck with horror and filled with 
indignation when we see the parental relation 
degraded to the level of pecuniary standards. And 
the child, on the other hand, does not have its 
standing in the family because of the money 
value of its services, but because it is a child. It 
belongs to the family, and its great value is de- 
termined by its relation to parental affection. It 
is saved by love, not by works. And that which 
parental love supremely demands is filial love in 
return. The child may show forth the filial spirit 
and live in answering affection, and parental love 
does all the rest. Nothing could be more odious 
than this relation when measured by pecuniary 
standards — a father wondering whether he will 
ever get back the money spent on the child, and 
a child unwilling to do anything unless it be paid; 
but nothing is more beautiful when interpreted 
in the light of love. Then parental love takes the 
will for the deed, and thus gives all its value to 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 179 

the cLild's imperfect service ; and then, in turn, 
finds in the answering filial love its own supreme 
and exceeding great reward. 

This is the general form in which we must 
conceive the relation of God to all created spirits. 
Infinite love bestows, and finite love answers 
back. This relation is caricatured or degraded as 
soon as the element of profit and loss is intro- 
duced into it. The finite may never boast, for it 
receives everything from God. And the gifts of 
God are not rewards of merit, but expressions of 
fatherly affection. 

And this which is true even of the highest 
orders of created spirits is preeminently true of 
men. For, as we have before pointed out, our 
life is one of development. It is not a conscious 
moral life from the start, but a sub-moral, sub- 
rational, even animal life, which is to develop 
into moral and spiritual forms. The individual 
in his personal life develops slowly into intelli- 
gence, knowledge, and self-control; and the social 
development, which has such significance for the 
mental and moral life of the individual, is an 
age-long process. Account has to be taken of 
both orders of development in estimating the 
moral life of men. And in this upward movement, 
as in the family, there are long periods of irre- 
sponsiveness, ignorance, waywardness, thought- 



180 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

lessness, with which love must bear, and out of 
which love must seek to bring its objects by all 
its resources of discipline and law and chastise- 
ment and self-revelation. And throughout this 
process men manifestly stand, not in the value of 
their works, but in the great love wherewith God 
has loved them. To boast of their merits would 
be like an infant declaiming on the value of its 
services, or a learner of the alphabet priding 
himself on the greatness of his knowledge. 

If there be any salvation, then, it must neces- 
sarily be of grace and not of debt. But salvation 
itself has often been mechanically, and even 
magically, conceived. The juristic and abstract 
conception of the atonement has led to a cor- 
responding conception of salvation which still 
haunts much of our thinking. The divine law is 
supposed to have a claim upon the individual or 
the whole race. This claim stands unsatisfied in 
the court of divine justice, much as a judgment 
stands on the books of an earthly court; and 
salvation consists in the satisfaction and cancel- 
lation of this claim. But Christian thought is 
fast outgrowing this conception of a legal and 
forensic relation, and replacing it by the thought 
of a vital, personal, and moral relation. The ideal 
relation between God and man is love from God 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 181 

above, and answering love and trust and obedi- 
ence from man below. And if this relation does 
not exist or has been disturbed, man is so far 
forth lost. And the establishment or restoration 
of this relation is salvation. It is not a thing of 
abstract forensic or judicial character which may 
be mechanically secured, but a personal and moral 
relation. Its essence consists in the development 
or restoration of the filial spirit, the subordination 
of our lives to the will of God, the loving recog- 
nition of God's loving will and presence in our 
lives. Any salvation which comes short of this is 
an abstract and non-moral thing which could 
satisfy neither God nor man. 

The failure to grasp this fact of the moral na- 
ture and aim of salvation has led to a great many 
abstract or mechanical schemes. To begin with, 
the atonement was conceived as having furnished 
a satisfaction for sin, absolute or conditional ; and 
individual salvation consisted in securing the ju- 
ristic advantages of a share in this satisfaction. 
Or, and this was the more common conception of 
the matter, the atonement was conceived as hav- 
ing furnished a store of merit or righteousness 
which might be applied to the extinction of our 
demerit or unrighteousness ; and individual salva- 
tion consists in having a due share of this merit 
transferred to the individual account. 



182 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

With this mechanical conception of the atone- 
ment and of salvation, it was only natural that 
correspondingly mechanical conceptions of the 
mode of securing salvation should arise. As sal- 
vation did not involve the personal love and loy- 
alty of the spirit, but was only a quantitative 
balancing of claims in a court of abstract justice, 
it was entirely credible that it might be secured 
by almost any sort of mechanical rites or cere- 
monies performed by us, or for us or upon us. 
Hence arose the scheme of sacerdotal proxyism, 
sacramentalism, and religious mechanism in gen- 
eral. The priest had mystical powers and the keys 
of heaven and hell. The sacraments were made 
saving ordinances, thus degenerating from a beau- 
tiful symbolism to the level of magical incantations. 
Then men betook themselves to meats and drinks 
and divers washings and carnal ordinances, to 
all manner of external rites and ceremonies and 
mechanical exercises, and supposed that their due 
performance would secure salvation. And this 
was entirely logical. Salvation itself being exter- 
nal and mechanical, it might well be mechanically 
secured. Thus spiritual religion lost itself in un- 
spiritual exercises which hid God from men, and 
kept men fram God. From these aberrations 
Christian thought is returning only as it discovers 
the spiritual nature of salvation and the worth- 



INCAENATION AND ATONEMENT 183 

lessness of meclianism and proxies of whatever 
kind. 



That salvation must be of grace is manifest. 
We have now to consider the meaning and func- 
tion of faith in the matter. 

The doctrine of salvation by faith has played 
a great part in Christian history; and it is not 
entirely intelligible apart from the history. What 
gave it such epochal significance at the time of 
the Protestant Reformation was the errors against 
which it protested. The mechanical and external 
development of religion in the Christian Church 
had reached its climax at that time. The system 
of rites and ceremonies, of fasts and penances, 
which began innocently enough, had become a 
yoke which the people were unable to bear. The 
priestly class also claimed to have the keys of 
heaven and hell, and by this means was enabled 
to exercise a dreadful tyranny over the minds of 
men. The system of indulgences debauched the 
Christian conscience, and purgatory with its 
allied doctrines made it possible to keep the 
living in abject terror concerning the dead. Good 
works, too, were largely mechanically conceived, 
and as such were without any spiritual character. 
Against all this the doctrine of salvation by 
faith was a revolt. It proclaimed the worthless- 



184 STUDIES m CHRISTIANITY 

ness of good works, and good works of the kind 
meant were worthless. Salvation, then, was not 
of works, but of God's grace through faith. 

The doctrine also equally meant the direct 
access of the soul to God. No man or set of men 
or institution has the keys of heaven or hell. 
The moral relation between God and the soul is 
purely personal, and no third party may inter- 
fere. This doctrine meant the overthrow of sacer- 
dotalism with all that depended upon it. There- 
after the priest was no person with mystical 
powers for blessing or condemning men, but 
simply a person appointed by the Christian body 
for the proper administration of the spiritual 
services of the Church. On all these accounts the 
doctrine had epochal significance in the history 
and progress of Christian thought and life. Over 
against all mechanical good works, it proclaimed 
that salvation is by faith only. Over against all 
spiritual pride and seK-sufficiency, it proclaimed 
that salvation is of grace. Over against all 
priestly or ecclesiastical assumption and usurpa- 
tion, it proclaimed the direct access of the soul 
to God. 

But it rarely happens that a great truth is 
clearly apprehended in its essential meaning and 
just limitations from the start, and it certainly 
did not happen in this case. Both faith and good 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 185 

works were misconceived, and much confusion 
resulted. Owing partly to the quantitative and 
juristic conception of the atonement, faith was 
often viewed as mere intellectual assent to a 
doctrine, and was finally identified with dog- 
matic orthodoxy. We find this error even in the 
apostles' time; and St. James sharply criticises it 
by saying the devils have this faith. "Thou be- 
lievest that there is one God; thou doest well; the 
devils also believe and tremble." Later on the 
error became still more pronounced and general, 
and constituted one of the great aberrations of 
theology, and a fruitful source of persecution. 
Of course there is nothing morally saving in 
mere intellectual assent; and this conception 
made salvation by faith an absurdity. What is 
there to save any one, or to transform character, 
in assenting to any dogmatic creed? Even if one 
understood them, which is not always the case, 
assenting to all the articles of the Athanasian 
Creed would save as little as assenting to the 
multiplication-table or a book of logarithms. As 
thus conceived, salvation by faith would be 
scarcely more than an idle fiction or meaningless 
hocus-pocus of words. 

But all of this mistakes the doctrine. The faith 
that saves is no mere assent of the understanding; 
it is the practical surrender of ourselves to the 



186 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

revealed grace and will of God, according to the 
commands and promises of our Lord. Our trust 
in this divine grace, our yielding ourselves up to 
it in obedience and submission, is our faith. It 
is a moral act which includes trust, submission, 
obedience ; and only as it includes them all is it 
saving faith. And that we can be truly saved — 
that is, lifted Godward — only in this way, is man- 
ifest. No mechanical rite or round can lift us, or 
has merit. We must trust in the grace above us, 
and submit ourselves to it, and we must struggle 
toward the ideal that grace holds out. The object 
of our trust may never be sought in ourselves, but 
only in the grace revealed from on high. How- 
ever we stumble or fall, we must not abandon this 
trust and devotion. We can rise only as our eyes 
are fixed on the Infinite Goodness above us. 

Understood in this way, salvation by faith is 
one of the deepest truths of religion. The faith 
merits nothing ; for it is grace which gives faith 
its value. But this faith is all we have, and indeed 
it is all that any finite spirit can have. And where 
this faith is, God can bestow himself upon us. 
We open our hearts and bid him come in. We 
bring ourselves to him to be made the temples for 
a divine indwelling ; and he receives us accord- 
ing to his word. To as many as thus receive him 
he gives power to become the children of God in 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 187 

the spirit. When faith is thus conceived we see 
that there can really be no other ethical and spir- 
itual condition of salvation. All other conditions 
are mechanical and non-spiritual^ and can never 
lift any soul Godward. But when faith is con- 
ceived as bare assent to any dogma whatever, 
instead of a living surrender to God in reliance 
upon his grace, then it becomes unfruitful, if not 
immoral and pernicious. 

The rejection of good works was likewise not 
clearly conceived, and this led to some disparage- 
ment of the doctrine. The one thing perfectly 
clear was that good works by machinery were 
worthless; that is, all performance of rite and 
ceremony of whatever kind which did not include, 
or which might be separated from, the living and 
loving surrender of heart and will to the love and 
service of God. All such works remain external 
to the soul, and count for nothing. They could 
never please God or lift a soul toward God. " My 
son, give me thine heart," is the supreme and all- 
inclusive demand from the divine side, and the 
supreme and central duty from the human side. 
The rejection of mechanical good works is the 
first condition of spiritual religion. 

But the doctrine was not so clear when it 
passed out of the mechanical into the moral field; 



188 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

and here misunderstandino^ arose. The desire 
to emphasize the opposition to Roman Catholic 
teaching was itseK a source of aberration. Again, 
good works themselves in an ethical sense were 
superficially conceived, as if they might exist with- 
out any inner loyalty and devotion of heart. This 
was to confound morality with legality, and led 
to those dreary denunciations of " mere morality" 
and natural goodness as " filthy rags," which 
formed the staple of so much preaching a cen- 
tury ago. But, on the other hand, much that 
was passed off for morality was only external 
conformity to outward law and custom, and was 
spiritually worthless. This difficulty disappears 
before a deeper insight into the true nature of 
morality. When it is seen that the supreme con- 
dition of true morality is the loyalty of heart and 
will to righteousness, it is plain that we need have 
no fear of good works in the moral sense ; indeed, 
the more of them the better. 

This difficulty arose partly from a fear of 
agreeing with the Catholic doctrine, partly from 
a superficial ethics, and partly from a fear of recog- 
nizing human goodness, lest the necessity of grace 
should seem to be diminished. A deeper and more 
rational source of the confusion in this matter Hes 
in confounding the ethical side of life, which is 
based on our freedom, with the rehgious side, 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 189 

which is based on our dependence ; and thus 
either the moral sense or the religious sense was 
violated. The religious sense in its feeling of re- 
verence and dependence would ascribe everything 
good to God, and feels as irreverent any assump- 
tion of merit on the part of man. But the moral 
nature in its experience of freedom and responsi- 
bility insists on vindicating a place for virtue and 
merit in man also. The former by itself would 
find its limit in a powerless passivity, which would 
cancel humanity altogether. The latter by itself 
would easily pass into Pharisaism and spiritual 
pride. Out of the failure to recognize the exist- 
ence and equal legitimacy of these opposite as- 
pects of the spiritual life has arisen a great deal 
of unwisdom concerning the value of our good 
works. 

The moral nature itself has a double aspect 
which, in a measure, runs parallel with these two 
antitheses. We may judge men by a double 
standard. If they are faithful to their light and 
possibility, we call them good on that account. 
Or we may compare them with our ideal of 
perfection, and then we find them imperfect, and 
hence condemned by the ideal. There is a similar 
dualism in our judgment of knowledge. If we 
judge a man's attainments by the standard of 
his time, by the acquirements of his fellows, by 



190 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

reference to his practical needs, we may well call 
him a wise man. But if we should judge with 
reference to perfect and completed knowledge, 
we should be unable to distinguish him from the 
fool, as all finite values and differences disappear 
when compared with the infinite. In like manner, 
when we judge men morally by the standard 
which obtains in their social environment and by 
the expectations which men justly form, we may 
accord them a high standard of goodness; and 
they might, as Job, maintain their integrity 
against all charges. But when we hold up our 
lives against the background of infinite holiness 
and perfection, the matter is altogether different; 
and the language which comes spontaneously to 
our hps is the prayer of the publican, " God, be 
merciful to us sinners." But these are only ap- 
parent contradictions. Both views are true accord- 
ing to our standpoint. There is such a thing as 
human merit, but all boasting is excluded before 
God. 

In judging of human goodness we must always 
bear in mind this double point of view, not deny- 
ing the reality of human virtue on the one hand, 
nor falling into a shallow spiritual pride and self- 
conceit on the other. Language here is not to 
be viewed as the formulas of logic, but as the 
expression of life, emotion, religion; and it is to 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 191 

be understood only from that standpoint. The 
moral will must always assert itself, and thus 
distinguish between the good man and the bad. 
And the religious nature, in its sense of depend- 
ence and reverence, will always delight in viewing 
all our virtues and graces as the gift of God. 

And this double need of our nature is best 
met by the doctrine of grace and faith. Our sal- 
vation is of grace, and not of debt. It is a gift 
of God, and not a reward of our meritorious 
works. But this salvation is through our faith, 
which is an active principle, and which must 
issue in obedience, or it is not faith at all. We 
show and verify our faith by our works, and 
neither can exist in any moral sense without the 
other. 

This is that salvation by faith which is the 
glory of the gospel, and which is a most whole- 
some doctrine, and very full of comfort. It is 
only the morally dull and blind who can be self- 
satisfied, as it is only the deeply ignorant who 
can boast of the greatness of their knowledge. 
In both realms the ideal grows faster than the 
actual, and ever condemns our utmost attainment. 
No strenuous conscientiousness, no faithfulness 
of service, can give us peace. For this we must 
be taken out of ourselves, and away from the 
contemplation of our own works, and made to 



192 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

gaze upon the infinite grace of God in which 
alone we trust and by which alone we stand. 

Thus I have sought to relieve the doctrines of 
divine grace from the verbal and mechanical 
misunderstandings which infest popular religious 
thought, and make the gospel itself a stumbling- 
block to many. In concluding, I emphasize several 
points : — 

1. We must distinguish between the fact of 
the Saviour's work and the theological theory of 
it. The latter is not of faith, but of speculation. 
Moreover, the fact is the essential thing ; and the 
religious teacher must never allow any one to 
think he has abandoned the fact because he is 
dissatisfied with the theory. 

2. We must note the instrumental and undog- 
matic character of Scripture language on this 
subject, and the resulting necessity of taking it 
in a free and living way rather than as the lan- 
guage of a dogma or a statute. A person who 
reads the Scriptures with no aid but the diction- 
ary, and without knowledge of ancient life and 
custom, and without diligently comparing Scrip- 
ture with Scripture, will certainly go astray in 
this matter. 

3. The doctrine itself must be brought out of 
the desert of abstract speculation, and be con- 



INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT 193 

structed and interpreted in the light of life and 
human experience. The ethical aim and aspect of 
the doctrine must be emphasized; and whatever 
conflicts therewith must be set aside. It is God's 
aim to save men from sin, not in sin; to save 
men from sin, not from penalty; to recover men 
to righteousness, not to plant them in heaven. 
Forgiveness and salvation must be interpreted in 
accordance with this fundamental fact. 

4. In religious instruction the teacher must put 
supreme emphasis on the fact of the Saviour's 
work. He must proclaim the love of God, the 
grace of the Lord Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, 
and must summon men to discipleship in his name. 
This is practically the gist of the matter, and 
whatever attention we give to theory, we must 
never allow it to obscure this simple fact. 

5. For practical purposes all we need is to be- 
come the disciples of our Lord, trusting in his 
promises and the Father whom he revealed. With 
this practical discipleship we shall receive all the 
benefits of the Saviour's work without any the- 
ory; and without this discipleship we are lost, 
whatever our theory. 



ni 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 



*♦ . •• 



Ill 

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 

My purpose in writing, and the scope of the dis- 
cussion, will best appear from some facts of expe- 
rience : — 

Not long ago a most worthy minister of my 
acquaintance, one who had been preaching more 
than fifty years and who was a model of saintly 
living, came to another minister, also a friend of 
mine, to talk about the witness of the Spirit. 
And his trouble was that he could not feel sure 
that he had ever had this witness. The expecta- 
tion awakened by the phrase had never been sat- 
isfied. And the good man's heart was disturbed ; 
and he sought counsel of his brother. 

My professional life has largely been spent in 
contact with thoughtful young men and women ; 
and I have frequently observed an uneasy feel- 
ing on their part that the traditional phrases of 
religious speech do not set forth with unstrained 
naturalness and transparent sincerity the facts of 
their religious life. Often they have formed a 
conception of what the religious life should be by 
reflection on the customary and inherited phrases ; 



198 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

and thus they have been led to entertain unwar- 
ranted expectations. Then the failure to realize 
them has led to an uncomfortable sense of arti- 
ficiality and unreality in all religious experience. 

In addition, I may say that I have been listen- 
ing intelligently to preaching for over forty years. 
Of course I have heard a great many good ser- 
mons, but in all that time I have heard very few 
sermons on conversion and the beginnings of the 
religious Hfe which were not both confused and 
confusing. Theological expositions have been 
plentiful enough ; vague, verbal exhortations have 
abounded ; but there has been a grievous lack of 
clear statement of what the seeking soul is to 
expect, or of what is expected from it. 

Such facts suggest, what every thoughtful and 
observant person must recognize, that there is 
need of revising popular religious phraseology, 
and also of clarifying popular conceptions con- 
cerning the religious life itself, and especially 
concerning its beginnings in conversion. This 
study is intended as a contribution to this desir- 
able end. 

The popular confusion on this subject in our 
individualistic churches has several leading sources, 
and our first work must be to indicate them. The 
first is the confounding the language of theology 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 199 

with the language of experience. The second is 
the mistaking of the abstract classifications of 
theological discussion for concrete classifications 
of living men. The third is an exaggerated indi- 
vidualism. We consider them in their order. 

On the first point we must note that a great 
many things may be theologically true which are 
not psychologically true. We may express and 
explain the experience in terms of doctrine, and 
in so doing we may have the truth ; nevertheless, 
the doctrine is not a fact of consciousness, but a 
theory about the fact. 

Thus, when some brother of picturesque habit 
of speech says in the social meeting, "The devil 
told me not to come here to-night," we are not to 
think that he has had an infernal interview. The 
fact of experience is that he was disinclined to 
come, and this disinclination he attributes to the 
devil. But however correct this may be as a theory 
of the hidden source of the temptation, it would 
be highly infelicitous to suppose that anything of 
the sort occurred within the consciousness of the 
individual himself. The experience as he states it 
is not the experience as lying within the range of 
consciousness, but rather the experience as theo- 
logized or, more properly, diabolized by this in- 
fernal reference. 

A less distasteful illustration of the difference 



200 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

between the language of theology and that of 
conscious experience may be found in our speech 
concerning the divine providence in our lives. 
We believe and teach that our times are in God's 
hand ; but this does not imply that we have any 
preception of the divine presence, or even that we 
can clearly trace the way in which God is work- 
ing out his will concerning us. The life of expe- 
rience is the familiar life of question, uncertainty, 
forethought, calculation, and venture, in all of 
which, moreover, we commonly seem left at our 
own risk to find the way; and not infrequently 
we miss it, and go astray. We still retain the doc- 
trine as an article of faith ; but we see that we 
must work out our own salvation nevertheless. 
We may indeed be profoundly convinced that we 
have been divinely guided, but this is more gen- 
erally a later inference than a present revela- 
tion. The doctrine then expresses a theory of life 
rather than a conscious experience ; and unless 
we bear this distinction in mind, it is more likely 
to be a source of doubt than of comfort. 

This is self-evident to every thoughtful person ; 
but what is not so plain to every one is that there 
is a vast amount of language concerning the inner 
life which is of the same sort. It is not the lan- 
guage of experience, but of theological theory. 
A great many things are said about the work of 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 201 

the Lord in the soul, the operations of the Spirit, 
his presence with us, — and all this may be true 
theologically, but it is not true psychologically. 
Moreover, a person who holds the theology in 
question may very naturally use it for expressing 
his experience ; yet even that does not make it a 
fact of experience. It is an object of belief, not 
a fact of consciousness; an accepted doctrine, not a 
conscious datum. Nevertheless, this language of 
theory is put forward as the language of expe- 
rience, and then confusion arises. By consequence 
a great many try to experience theology instead 
of experiencing religion. 

Two classes of persons escape this confusion. 
The first class consists of those persons, unskilled 
in reflection, whose language has only an acci- 
dental connection with their ideas. They hear 
and inherit phrases, and they have a measure of 
religious life. They also use the phrases upon 
occasion; but no one could ever discover from a 
reflection on the phrases, and the ordinary secular 
use of language, what the corresponding expe- 
rience might be. One must gather this from an 
acquaintance with the subject-matter, and with 
the peculiar forms of speech in this field. Here 
again we find illustration in the brother who says 
the devil tells him to do this or that. No exegesis 
of the utterance, according to the recognized us- 



202 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

age of secular speech, would ever reveal that this 
means only that the person feels an inclination to 
some evil deed, and ascribes it to the devil as its 
source. Persons in this stage of development are 
not harmed by speech which would be misleading 
to one who sought to understand it in the ordi- 
nary way. They do not get any ideas from lan- 
guage, but they express the ideas they have in the 
phrases which have become conventional upon 
the subject. 

The second class of persons who suffer no harm 
from such language consists of those who have 
learned to take the language, not for what it 
seems to say, but for what they know it means. 
They understand the picturesque phrase, or dis- 
count the extravagant metaphor, or penetrate to 
the meaning behind some grotesque or distaste- 
ful image, and thus escape the illusion which 
might otherwise arise. 

But there is a third class less fortunate. This 
consists of persons who have attained to some 
measure of reflective consciousness, but who have 
not learned to distinguish the language of theo- 
logy from the language of experience. By con- 
sequence they seek to tell what the religious fact 
should be by reflecting on the language they hear 
used to describe it. Only such or such an expe- 
rience would come up to the demands of the Ian- 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 203 

guage, and then they seek to have the experience. 
But somehow or other the appropriate experience 
does not come ; and then comes either an attempt 
to beheve the actual experience is the one desired, 
or else a suspicion that the whole matter is ficti- 
tious. Not a few good Christians have lived on 
uneasy terms with their religious experience on 
this account. They have taken the language of 
theology for the language of consciousness, and 
thus have been led to form unwarranted expecta- 
tions. My friend who was troubled about the 
witness of the Spirit had the root of his difficulty 
right here. The phrase had led him to expect some 
sort of celestial manifestation, a testimony from 
without, and standing so clearly apart from the 
ordinary laws of mental movement as to be un- 
deniably produced by the manifest God. In lack 
of any such experience, he doubted whether he 
had had the witness of the Spirit. This class 
comprises the great mass of thoughtful young 
persons in the churches. And for this class the 
religious teacher needs to bear in mind the dis- 
tinction between theology and consciousness, in 
order to escape misleading and dangerous confu- 
sion. 

The language of theology must often be used, 
indeed, but it should be used in such a way as 
not to mislead the inexperienced hearer or reader 



204 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

into an attempt to experience theology. And in 
general we must remember that all language 
about the inner life must be misleading to any 
one who interprets it only by the dictionary. 
Commonly the language is a metaphor, or it has 
a fixity and definiteness which do not belong to 
the fact; or it may express an ideal toward 
which we strive, but which we never fully attain. 
There is much religious speech of this sort. It 
indicates a direction or sets forth an ideal, to 
which we can only approximate. The fact it- 
self, however, can be learned only in life ; and 
the language is only an imperfect instrument for 
expressing the life. The religious teacher cannot 
be too careful and discriminating at this point, 
for really there is no language on this matter 
that does not need to be carefully guarded to 
prevent confusion. 

The second great source of our confusion is 
the mistaking of the hard-and-fast lines and an- 
titheses of theological ethics for concrete facts 
among living men. Ethics in general tends to fall 
into this error. We speak of the moral agent and 
of responsibility, and have fairly clear ideas as to 
our meaning so long as we remain in the field of 
abstraction. But the matter becomes indefinitely 
more complex when we look at actual human 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 205 

beings. Then we find that we have to deal, not 
with hypothetical and abstract moral agents, but 
with beings in an order of development where the 
intellectual insight, the volitional energy and 
self-control, and the moral sensibihty have to be 
developed, and where the development is never 
complete. This complicates the matter indefinite- 
ly; and while our abstract ideas are still true as 
abstractions, we see that they have to be greatly 
modified in application. Every thoughtful person 
knows how difficult it is to determine the mea- 
sure of merit or demerit in a concrete case. En- 
vironment, heredity, and the inscrutable personal 
equation have to be taken into account ; and 
these are all beyond us. 

The fact appears even more prominently in 
theology. We form such antithetical classes as 
saints and sinners, the saved and the unsaved; 
and we fancy that living human beings admit of 
being classified in this hard-and-fast way. Of 
course these abstractions are necessary in theo- 
retical discussion, and the opposed classes are 
mutually exclusive and contradictory; neverthe- 
less, concrete men, women, and children cannot 
be divided off so easily. This is a world of 
growth from irresponsible ignorance and weak- 
ness toward responsible power and insight; it is 
a world of development from sub-moral and sub- 



206 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

rational beginnings toward moral and rational 
endings. And in such a world we must view 
great masses of men as neither saved nor lost, 
but as developing towards these conditions. They 
are neither good nor bad, in a strictly moral 
sense, but are becoming good or bad. An aca- 
demic ethics and an artificial theology find no 
place for them, yet they form the bulk of the 
human race. And we shall never reach any 
theory which will satisfy the developed moral 
judgment of men until this fact has been recog- 
nized. The human world is less a world in which 
moral classes exist than one in which moral 
classes are forming. 

The difference between the abstract and the 
concrete standpoint appears with startling vivid- 
ness when we are dealing with our dead. Damn- 
ing the abstract sinner is an easy matter and 
seems to be meet and right and a bounden duty, 
but it looks different when it is our own flesh 
and blood. Then in one way or another we leave 
open some door of hope. The Church wisely 
makes no distinction in its liturgy for the burial 
of the dead and refuses to pass judgment. A 
letter of Fenelon's well illustrates the difference 
between the abstract austerity of the theologian 
and the human heart of the man. He writes to 
a father whose son had lived a reckless life and 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 207 

died gallantly in battle: "You must not give 
way too much to distressing thoughts. The 
frailty of such early youth in a Hfe so full of 
diversion is not so poisonous as some sensual 
vices which are refined into the disguise of vir- 
tues in later life. God sees the clay of which he 
has moulded us, and has pity on his poor chil- 
dren. Besides, although the force of nature and 
example may lead a young man in some degree 
astray, we can, notwithstanding, say what the 
Church says in the prayers of the dying, ' Never- 
theless, God, his hope and trust were in thee.' 
A foundation of faith and religious principles 
which has been overwhelmed by the excitement 
of passions is stirred in a moment by imminent 
danger. Such an extremity as this routs all life's 
illusions, lifts a sort of veil, reveals eternity, and 
recalls the realities that have become shrouded. 
However little God may seem to be working in 
that moment, the first instinct of a heart that has 
ever been accustomed to him is to throw itself 
upon his mercy. Neither time nor exhortations 
are needed for him to be felt and heard. To 
Magdalene he said but the one word, ^Mary,' 
and she replied to him but that other word, 
'Master'; and no more was needed. He called 
his child by her name, and she was already 
returned to him. That ineffable appeal is all- 



208 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

powerful; a new heart and a new soul are born 
in the inmost being. Weak men who can see 
only the surface desire preparation, definite 
ritual, spoken resolves. God needs only a moment 
wherein he can do all and see that it is done." 

This passage is quoted not for the sake of ex- 
pressing approval or disapproval, but solely to 
show that even the most orthodox may draw back 
from the abstract theory in concrete application. 
But in our closet speculation we commonly over- 
look this fact and divide men into antithetical 
classes, as the saved and the unsaved. This has 
generally been an abstract division, and abstract 
law and abstract justice and abstract holiness and 
abstract sin have played their abstract part. But 
after we have adopted this division, it becomes an 
important matter to fix the standard of distinction. 
If one is not saved, it is a matter of serious concern 
to know the ground of the exclusion, particularly 
as the traditional classification by no means al- 
ways runs parallel with our unsophisticated moral 
judgments. In response to this need, theologians 
have given a great variety of answers. Those who 
have lost themselves in theological and ritual 
mechanism have found the mark of being saved 
in the due performance of some rite or pronun- 
ciation of some formula; but this removes the 
matter from the moral and rational field alto- 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 209 

gether. The churclies which insist on personal 
piety tend to fix attention on conversion, or a 
change of heart, or the new birth, as the distinc- 
tive mark of the saved; and because of the fail- 
ure to grasp the fact of development, this is com- 
monly supposed to have a definite date in time. 
And in order that there be no mistake about a 
matter so important, these churches have sought 
for unmistakable signs of grace which should 
leave no question. This has led to certain concep- 
tions of these things to which experience must 
conform, on pain of being distrusted, if not re- 
jected as spurious; and this in turn has led to an 
indefinite amount of distortion of experience in 
order to bring it up to the assumed standard. 

In the imperfect conditions of undeveloped 
men, every good thing has its attendant evil, or 
at least a tendency to develop into mistaken 
forms. A very general tendency, even in the 
Christian religion, has been to develop into me- 
chanical externalism, in which the spirit is missed 
altogether. Ancient Pharisaism is a monumental 
example. The same thing is seen in the mediaeval 
Church ; and modern church history is not lacking 
in illustration. There is a tendency to substitute 
a mechanical performance of mechanical rites 
for the love and loyalty of the heart. Hence, reli- 



210 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

gious reformers have commonly had to protest 
against this tendency, and to recall men to the wor- 
ship of the spirit. The Lord looketh at the heart. 
They that worship God must worship him in 
spirit and in truth. The prophets of the Old 
Testament had for one of their chief burdens the 
worthlessness of rites and ceremonies, and the 
necessity of the pure heart, if we would secure 
the divine favor. God, who looketh at the heart, 
can never compound for spiritual obedience by 
accepting anything less. And this has been the 
tone of all succeeding reformers and reforma- 
tions. Away with all salvation by machinery, 
by hearsay, by proxy, and let the soul come face 
to face with God in repentance and humility and 
faith ! Only thus can it hope to obtain the remis- 
sion of sins. 

This view certainly represents the ideal of spirit- 
ual religion ; and religious development must be 
looked upon as imperfect, even formally, until 
this stage has been reached. And if we were deal- 
ing with human beings ready-made and finished 
from the start, we might conceive that this is the 
only conception to be allowed. But the matter 
is complicated by the fact and form of human 
development. This spiritual attitude may be de- 
manded of those who have developed far enough 
to understand it ; but what of those who have 
not? Are they saved or unsaved? 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 211 

This question has been the source of some 
extraordinary notions in theology. The question 
itself arose from a failure to observe that devel- 
opment is the law of human life ; and the notions 
held rested upon factitious ethical difficulties, 
based upon considering the problem in an abstract, 
forensic way, instead of a concrete and truly eth- 
ical manner. Some theologians of rigor and vigor 
taught the damnation of infants, but humanity 
generally protested at this ultra rigor. But how 
to save them was a problem which received no 
single solution. The great body of Christians 
turned baptism into a regenerating rite which 
insured the safety of its subjects. One cannot 
make much out of this on ethical and rational 
grounds ; but it is interesting as showing the well- 
nigh universal conviction of the Christian world 
that some way must be found of saving the chil- 
dren. Those who did not accept this device found 
or invented others ; and the same fact was true 
of these — they testified to a good disposition 
and to the recognition of a moral necessity ; but 
it was exceedingly hard to adjust them to any 
ethical and rational scheme. 

In general, here was a problem which the re- 
ligious reformer did not always sufficiently con- 
sider. In assuming responsibility for the immature, 
the Church had made some provision for compre- 



212 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

bending the race as a whole in the scheme of sal- 
vation ; but in so doing, it had also exposed itself 
to a variety of dangers. The Church easily came 
to be looked upon as having complete power of 
attorney in the case, so that the individual need 
not appear at all. This readily passed into a me- 
chanical conception of reHgion, and a magical 
conception of salvation, in which all spirituality 
disappeared. The individual had nothing to do 
but to make arrangements with the Church, and 
the Church would do the rest. 

Against such a conception the religious re- 
former rightly revolted. What does baptism 
amount to without the spirit ? What does any- 
thing in religion amount to without the pure 
heart ? And this cannot be secured by proxy or 
machinery of any kind. Away then, once more, 
with all such matters! for salvation is a strictly 
individual thing. State churches were abomina- 
tions, as their fruits clearly showed. The truly 
spiritual were to come out from among them, and 
be separate, and thus build up a pecuKar people, 
zealous of good works. 

All of this was well-meant, and all of this had 
its historical reasons, if not its justification. But 
none the less was it one-sided. Of course we must 
reject the mechanism of rite and ceremony as 
anything in which to trust, or which can dispense 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 213 

"with the devotion of the heart ; but we can do 
this and still recognize that this mechanism may 
be a valuable instrument in forming the thought 
and training the feeling of developing men. Of 
course we must reject the notion that the Church 
can forgive sins ; but still we may believe that it 
can declare the forgiveness of sins which of itself 
it cannot confer. We must remember that the 
mass of human beings must live by hearsay, in 
religion as well as in most other matters ; and 
thus the authoritative teaching of the Church 
acquires profound significance for the religious 
life of the individual. The religious reformer was 
right, but the churchman was right too. The 
reformer emphasized individualism ; and the 
churchman emphasized solidarity. The reformer 
rightly held that the individual must for himself 
recognize and accept the divine will, and that all 
below this was vain if this result was not reached ; 
but the churchman rightly held that the prepar- 
atory steps, while making nothing perfect, still 
had their religious significance in the develop- 
ment of the individual. Both views are needed 
for the full expression of the truth ; and if the 
historic circumstances of the time had permitted 
the reforms to go on within the Church, the result 
would have been better for all concerned. And 
this is true alike for the great Protestant Refor- 



214 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

mation and for minor reformations before and 
since. That both views are needed especially ap- 
pears from the struggles of the extreme individ- 
ualists in fixing the beginning of responsibil- 
ity. One considerable body, which would hear of 
nothing but conscious choice and self-initiative 
in religion, officially fixed the tender age of eight 
years as the date when adult life begins! Of 
course, back of both views, as the only thing that 
gives either of them any standing, is the simple 
grace of God, who is not working a scheme of 
technical salvation, but who is developing men 
into his image as his spiritual children. 

But in their determination to have a holy 
church, our Nonconformist ancestors decided to 
have only the best ; and this made it necessary 
to draw a sharp line between the Church and the 
world. It was heresy to find this in baptism or 
any such thing. They knew only too well that 
baptized persons could hold full membership in 
the synagogue of Satan. And as spirituality was 
their aim, they naturally fixed their attention 
on the religious life, and more especially on its 
assumed beginning in conversion. And, in order 
that there might be no mistake about the mat- 
ter, a deal of attention was directed to the signs 
of grace, whereby a sheep might infallibly be 
known and separated from common goats. This 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 215 

led, in New England, under Edwards's influence, 
to much fictitious psychology and ethics, and 
to a general browbeating of human nature. The 
early Methodists tended to test conversion by 
its emotional attendants. Other things being 
equal, these will vary with the measure of the 
break between the new life and the old. An out- 
breaking sinner, who has been living in violation 
of all the laws of God and man, could not begin 
the new life without a break with about all there 
was in his old life. In such a case the fountains 
of the great deep would be broken up within him, 
and there would be an intensity of feeling and a 
manifest new departure which would be lacking, 
or less obvious, in the case of a better man. And 
as Methodism, in its original work, dealt largely 
with persons of this class, conversions were largely 
of this type, and they came to be the standard 
to which conversions should conform. Such con- 
versions were said to be clear or powerful ; while 
others, less marked, though admitted, were still 
open to the suspicion of being less thorough. 
Every one familiar with Methodist revival ser- 
vices knows how common such views have been. 
Thus we have seen the origin and justification 
of the ideal of the individualistic churches in re- 
gard to personal religion ; and we have also seen, 
how much confusion and uncertainty exist in 



216 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

popular thought respecting the matter. And the 
only way out of this confusion seems to be to get 
back to our fundamental religious conceptions, 
and from them seek to find our way to some 
clearer views of the relio[:ious life. 

Keligious truth can be expressed only by fig- 
ures borrowed from the relations of the life that 
now is. All religious speech, then, is based on 
metaphor, and must be taken, not for what it 
says, but for what it means. The task of religious 
thought is to find the meaning in the metaphor, 
and also to find the metaphor which shall best 
express the meaning. There is a choice in meta- 
phors. 

The traditional theological doctrine concerning 
sin and salvation has been largely built on meta- 
phors, taken partly from the rites of the ancient 
temple service and partly from governmental, 
legal, and criminal relations. God's relation to 
men was generally conceived, in the obsolescent 
theology of the past, as that of an irresponsible 
governor. Men were by nature criminals, and the 
theory of the mutual relations of God and men 
was based mainly on this conception. The notion 
of the governor and his rights was determined 
largely by the political absolutism of the time, 
and the standing of men was determined by the 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 217 

forms of criminal law and criminal procedure. 
The two together produced a most incongruous 
compound. The theology was bad, and the ethics 
was worse. God, like the king, could do no wrong, 
and the clay was forbidden to protest at anything 
the potter might do. The infinite ill-desert o£ a 
sin against an infinite being was a favorite con- 
tention. Guilt was artificial, justice was artificial, 
penalty was artificial, salvation was artificial, per- 
dition was artificial. There was very little in the 
doctrine concerning any of these things that 
spoke clearly and convincingly to the reason and 
conscience of men. This general view resulted in 
conceiving men as rebels, apostates, traitors, and 
as all deserving immediate perdition at the hands 
of God. They were by nature children of wrath, 
and of course unsaved. A great many texts, in- 
terpreted according to the fashion of that time, 
readily lent themselves to such notions. 

But the entire Church has grown away from 
this view, except as a very imperfect and inade- 
quate representation of the truth. God may be 
represented as governor, but never with the lim- 
itations of a human governor, and still less with 
the irresponsibility of an Oriental ruler. The 
crude devices of criminal law, also, which are 
mainly makeshifts for doing as little injustice as 
possible, are never to be appealed to as models of 



218 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

divine procedure. We are fast displacing the en- 
tire conception of God as governor by the con- 
ception of God as father ; and the conception of 
the divine government is giving place to the con- 
ception of the divine family. The deepest thought 
of God is not that of ruler, but of father; and 
the deepest thought of men is not that of sub- 
jects, but of children. And the deepest thought 
concerning God's purpose in our life is not salva- 
tion from threatening danger, but the training 
and development of souls as the children of God. 
Salvation or redemption is but an incident or im- 
plication of this deeper purpose, and must be in- 
terpreted accordingly. The entire subject must 
be studied as a relation of living moral persons 
rather than of ethical and juristic abstractions. 

This new conception of the fatherhood and the 
family contains all that was true in the old con- 
ception of governor and subject; but it is deeper 
and more comprehensive, and hence truer, than 
the old. And in so far as the older view conflicts 
with this, it must be modified or set aside. It may 
be retained as a partial view, or as one aspect of 
the subject, but it must always be interpreted in 
accordance with the larger view. But, on the other 
hand, the new conception is not to be viewed as a 
sentimental one, or as involving a relaxation of 
the rigor of moral demands. 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 219 

The training and development of souls as the 
children of God, then, is God's essential purpose 
in the creation of men ; and we must understand 
our human life from this point of vicAV. And we 
must also bear in mind that it is an order of 
development. That was not first which was spirit- 
ual, but that which was natural, and afterward 
that which was spiritual. The development has a 
natural root as well as a spiritual goal. The de- 
velopment also involves the unfolding of the con- 
stitutional powers of man as well as his abstract 
spiritual capacities. For a long time the develop- 
ment remains on the plane of the natural without 
attaining to the consciously spiritual; but all the 
while it is the development of man in a divinely 
ordered scheme ; and all the phases and factors of 
this scheme have their place and function in the 
divine plan for men. 

Of course, in such a scheme our traditional cat- 
egories of the saved and the unsaved cannot be 
applied in any hard-and-fast manner, but must 
be limited to a relative significance. They have 
a value in abstract theory, and they may express 
a limit toward which men are tending, but they 
cannot be rigorously applied to the rank and file 
of the race. As said before, men are not so much 
saved as they are becoming saved ; and men are 
not so much lost as they are becoming lost. The 



220 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

process is going on ; the classes are forming ; but 
we are totally unable to form any fixed classifi- 
cation of these living men and women about us. 
The various traditional tests are grotesque in 
their inadequacy, when they are not purely me- 
chanical and non-moral. 

Human beings are carried on in the begin- 
nings of their existence as unconsciously as 
nature itself. They are borne along Hke the 
rocks and the trees, the earth and the stars, with- 
out any sense of the will and the purpose which 
underlie their motion. But it is God's thought 
for men that they shall not always be borne 
along thus unconsciously, but shall become aware 
of God's presence and purpose in their lives, and 
shall reverently recognize the presence, and fili- 
ally accept and cooperate with the purpose. They 
are to pass from the unconsciousness of nature 
and the ignorance of childhood to the conscious 
recognition and acceptance of the divine will; 
and then they are to go on with God in deepen- 
ing sympathy and growing fellowship forever. 

This is God's eternal thought for men, and it 
is not modified in any way in its essential nature 
by the fact of sin. Of course, much of what we 
call sin is error and mistake, arising from the 
ignorance of men who have to feel their way. 
And sin itself, as we find it among men, is 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 221 

largely the willfulness of freedom which has not 
learned self-control, rather than any deliberate 
choice of evil. Ignorance and untrained willful- 
ness abound, and both alike must be removed, or 
they will increase and lead to disaster. Ignorance 
must be enlightened if men are ever to find the 
way. The unchastened will must learn self- 
restraint if it is to run at large. But during the 
process we must not indulge in extravagant con- 
demnation by bringing in the categories of ab- 
stract theological ethics. These have as little 
application to the case as they would have to the 
judgment of the family life. 

This reference to the family gives us a hint of 
how developing beings are to be judged. The 
father's desire is that the children shall come to 
recognize his love and filially to accept his com- 
mands. He desires that they shall develop into 
sympathy and fellowship with himself; and not 
until this stage is reached is the development 
complete. But in the mean time the children 
belong to the family, and have immeasurable 
value for the father's heart. They know little or 
nothing of the love that is lavished upon them; 
but it is there, nevertheless, and by it they are 
upborne and carried along. The parents have 
patience with the ignorance, the irresponsiveness, 
the willfulness, knowing that time and discipHne 



222 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

and some experience of life are necessary to 
bring the children to any proper knowledge of 
themselves and of their duties. Meanwhile the 
wise parent is not unduly distressed at childish 
imperfection. He knows it is to be expected and 
must be borne with. He knows, too, that it is 
nothing very serious in itself — it is serious only 
in its tendencies ; and he avails himself of all the 
means of discipline, of instruction, of correction, 
to prevent the evil tendencies from being realized. 
But he would regard it as in the highest degree 
false and abominable if one should claim that 
the little rebellions of childhood forfeit member- 
ship in the family. Children cannot rebel to this 
extent. Their ignorance and general lack of 
insight make it impossible. What might be pos- 
sible with angels, we cannot tell. What doom 
should follow rebellion committed in the full 
light of knowledge and with full insight into its 
evil nature, might be hard to say. But human 
life is not of this sort, and cannot be treated in 
this way. Such discussion must be limited to 
treatises on the sin of the devil and his angels; 
it has no application to human conditions. 

But we are sinners. Yes, but not outcasts. But 
we are rebels. No, we are prodigal sons. And 
God's grace is such that his essential will for us 
remains unchanged, that we should become aware 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 223 

of his loving purpose for us, and should accept it 
in filial submission, and work together with him 
in building up his kingdom among men. And 
this, too, we understand from the side of the fam- 
ily again. The supreme desire of the prodigal's 
father was that the prodigal should come home 
to him, the father; and the supreme duty of the 
prodigal was to go home in the spirit of penitence, 
and devote himself to doing his father's will. And 
we, as prodigal sons of our Heavenly Father, have 
the same all-inclusive duty. 

How the forgiveness of sin is made possible has 
been the subject of much theory, largely abstract 
and often unedifying. In fact, there is no com- 
pletely satisfactory theory on the subject, sup- 
posing any theory is needed. We find various 
conceptions given in the Scriptures, which are 
mutually inconsistent when taken in strict literal- 
ness, and some of which would be immoral. This 
shows that they are not to be taken literally, but 
must be viewed as adumbrations of the truth ; not 
the truth itself, but ways of putting it. And these 
views are to be understood psychologically rather 
than logically; as expressions of life rather than 
as statutory enactments. Taken in the former 
way, they are full of significance and truth ; taken 
in the latter way, they become mechanical, irra- 
tional, and pernicious. But in any case this ques- 



224 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

tion belongs to theology and not to religious ex- 
perience. However it may be brought about, or 
whatever hidden mystery there may lie in the 
divine nature, the one thing we have to proclaim 
is the grace of God, the forgiveness of sins, the 
divine help for all those who truly seek it. The 
revelation of God in Christ is essentially a revela- 
tion of his grace and his gracious disposition to- 
ward us. He has sent his Son to proclaim this, and 
to put it beyond all doubt forever. The Father's 
heart yearns after the prodigal children ; and all 
that we have to do is to come home in penitence 
and humility, trusting in his mercy and seeking to 
do his will. Whatever is more than this belongs to 
theology, and may possibly be important in that 
field. But the prodigal's duty is to go home; and 
for this he needs no theory of the atonement, no 
doctrine of substitution, or of imputed righteous- 
ness, or of ransom paid to the devil, or of govern- 
mental exigencies happily provided for; but solely 
the desire to find the Father's help and favor and 
forgiveness. And this conception of God, as full 
of grace and compassion, as ready to forgive the 
penitent soul, and to give it power to become the 
child of God in the spirit, is the central idea of 
the gospel. 

If these things are so, then the essential mat- 
ter of Christian teaching is simplified. God's aim 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 225 

IS to bring men to the recognition of his presence 
and purpose in their lives and to a filial accept- 
ance of that purpose in all their conduct. If men 
are ignorant of that purpose, we must teach 
them. If they ignore it, or turn away from it, we 
must warn them. If they seek after God, we 
must declare his infinite nearness and his gracious 
condescension. If they turn from their evil ways, 
we must proclaim the forgiveness of sins. The 
whole matter will be clear if we bear in mind 
what God's purpose is for men. And the duty of 
the inquirer is equally plain. Let him at once 
begin to do the will of God so far as he knows 
it, trusting in the divine mercy for the forgive- 
ness of sin and for all needed help. "Let the 
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man 
his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, 
and he will have mercy upon him ; and to our 
God, for he will abundantly pardon." But, on 
the other hand, " if I regard iniquity in my heart, 
the Lord will not hear me " ; and he ought not 
to hear me. 

What, then, does God require of us? Various 
answers are given, all of which come to the same 
thing. An old prophet found the requirement in 
doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly 
with God. Loving submission and active obedi- 
ence to the will of God is another formula. Seek 



226 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

to live so as to please God in all things is still 
another. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ — that 
is, become his disciple and follower — is another. 
But they all mean the same thing. We are not 
required to have affecting views of our sins, or a 
sense of our deep unworthiness, or an insight 
into theology of any sort, but we are required to 
surrender ourselves to God to do his will, and 
then at once set about our Father's business. 

But we are not yet converted, or born again, 
or saved. What has been said thus far smacks 
of legality and good works, and seems to make 
nothing of faith and the new birth and the wit- 
ness of the Spirit ; and these things are the very 
gist of spiritual religion. 

In this objection we have an almost complete 
list of the confusion and misunderstandings 
which have darkened the discussion of this sub- 
ject. We must consider them singly. 

Underlying this objection there is a secret 
reference to the theology of abstraction. Abstract 
law and abstract justice are supposed to have 
claims upon us which must be met before we can 
become children of God ; and surely our thought 
of conversion must largely concern itself with 
these. But here we must again remind ourselves 
that these questions belong to speculative theo- 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 227 

logy and not to experience. If we were giving a 
philosophy of Christian doctrine, these questions 
might come up ; but they are out of place when 
we are preaching the gospel. And we must fur- 
ther remind ourselves that the claims, whatever 
they may be, have been met ; and the difficulties, 
whatever they may be, have been removed; so 
that we have to consider only the practical 
aspects of Christian doctrine. We turn over the 
speculative and philosophical questions to the 
theologian, and continue to occupy ourselves 
with the practical life. 

There are many important theological terms 
and phrases which, from long use and thought- 
lessness, have worn so smooth as to have lost 
most of their meaning; and the only way to 
restore them to significance seems to be to look 
directly at the facts from which the terms arise. 
Proceeding in this way, we discover that there is 
a vast deal of wrong thinking in the world, not 
merely erroneous thinking as in speculative mat- 
ters, but wrong practical thinking. Men see 
things out of their right relations. They misjudge 
values and invert their relative importance. They 
have their minds full of these misconceptions, 
and practical confusion and misdirection result. 
Hence, the first condition of a new and better 
life is to repent; that is, men must change their 



228 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

minds or their ways of thinking about things. 
The word translated "repentance" means just 
this, to change one's mind. This is the Christian, 
or New Testament, idea of repentance; and this 
is the first condition for entering into the king- 
dom of God. It is not a question of getting to 
heaven, but of entering into that kingdom which 
is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost; and, of course, no one can enter this 
kingdom except by attaining to the spirit, the 
temper, the way of thinking, in which the king- 
dom consists. 

Again, men are traveling the wrong road or in 
the wrong direction. They are moving away from 
life and from the highest things. They are on the 
downward grade. Hence they must be converted, 
that is, must turn around, if they would enter into 
life. This is the New Testament idea of conversion. 
In the authorized version the translation makes it 
appear as a passive process in which we are acted 
upon: for instance, repent and be converted; 
whereas the Greek verb is active, and is so rendered 
in the revised version. Conversion, then, is a turn- 
ing from the wrong road into the right one. It is 
not to be understood in a metaphysical sense, as 
implying some change in the substance of the 
soul ; nor in a theological sense, as implying some 
difficult forensic adjustment in the court of heaven 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 229 

whereby the antithesis of justice and mercy is 
happily mediated. It is to be understood solely as 
implying the opposition between the contents 
and direction of the new life and those of the 
old. 

In the same way the new birth is to be under- 
stood. If we consider the contents of the earthly 
life, its low aims and maxims, — and hence its 
opposition to the life of the Spirit, — we see 
that the change required for passing into the 
spiritual life is very strikingly called a new birth, 
or a birth from above. St. Paul called it a resur- 
rection from the dead. Both expressions mean 
the same thing, and both are equally metaphor- 
ical. They are to be understood from the side of 
life, and not from the side of theology. When 
thus understood they are striking and expres- 
sive ; but when they are taken for a hidden meta- 
physical process they lose all intelligible mean- 
ing, and become an opaque theological wonder. 
Without doubt the Holy Spirit must assist us in 
our efforts. The weak will must be strengthened, 
the dull conscience must be enlightened, the way- 
ward affections must be fixed ; and in all this we 
need the co-working of God. But we always need 
this. And whatever mystery may attach thereto, 
its effect for us, and the only intelligible mean- 
ing we can ascribe to it, must consist in the turn- 



230 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

ing of heart and will toward God, in the set pur* 
pose to please and to serve him. 

The same thing must be said of salvation or 
being saved. This also is to be ethically under- 
stood. What may be possible in the way of a fo- 
rensic understanding, we leave to theologians to 
decide; but in any case salvation must be ethically 
understood, or we are landed in artificial hocus- 
pocus, if not in downright immorahty. To be sure, 
St. Paul used the terms of the Roman law very 
freely to set forth the great salvation, and in this 
he has generally been followed by Protestant theo- 
logians. But it has long been apparent that these 
terms are not to be taken in a rigid literal sense. 
They must be seen as metaphors or ways of put- 
ting, and must be interpreted from the side of the 
moral life, and not by the dictionary alone. To 
love God and to seek to serve and please him 
is the sum of human duty, and it is forever in- 
credible that God should demand any more or be 
satisfied with any less. The divine aim is to bring 
men into the loving recognition and acceptance 
of the divine will. Forgiveness by the Heavenly 
Father is no more difficult than forgiveness by an 
earthlv father, and in both cases what is desired 
is the establishment of the filial spirit in the heart 
and will of the wayward child. And this is salva- 
tion in the ethical sense, and the only salvation 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 231 

with which we have any practical concern. Sal- 
vation conceived as something possessed by one 
and not possessed by another of similar spirit and 
life, or conceived as depending on some device of 
celestial bookkeeping, or as depending on the per- 
formance of some rite or the utterance of some 
formula, has no moral contents at all, but sinks 
to the level of magical incantations. 

The importance of conversion in the Christian 
sense of the term cannot be overestimated. But 
the popular thought is not Christian. For it the 
test of conversion is about this: Have they had 
some rhapsodic experience or some great emo- 
tional rapture? Have strange and extraordinary 
psychological events taken place in their con- 
sciousness ? If not, then they may be " moral," 
but they are not converted. Probably even yet 
many churches could be found where the serious 
purpose to lead a religious life in reverent de- 
pendence on God for help would be a far more 
doubtful proof of conversion than would be fur- 
nished by some emotional ecstasy ; and apparently 
little suspicion of the dismal blunder would be 
aroused even if the person should fail to manifest 
in daily life any real love for God and righteous- 
ness. But in this popular sense no one is under 
any obligation to be converted ; neither in this 
sense does it matter in the least whether one be 



232 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

converted or not. Dr. Cuyler, in his autobio- 
graphy, " Recollections of a Long Life," says 
that he cannot fix the time or place of his con- 
version. He was led gradually along, and grew 
into a rehgious life by the power of the Holy 
Spirit working through his mother's influence. 
And Dr. Washington Gladden has this to say of 
Phillips Brooks : — 

When Dr. Vinton was spoken to about this plan 
of studying for the ministry, he answered that confir- 
mation was supposed to precede theological study, and 
that conversion was regarded as a requisite for con- 
firmation. Phillips Brooks answered that he did not 
know what conversion meant. The reply is somewhat 
startling. Probably, the conventional notion of con- 
version which had been enforced upon him was one 
that he did not then understand, and, perhaps, never 
did. But if conversion means the resolute turning of 
the soul to God with the purpose of obedience, he had, 
beyond a doubt, already experienced it. Dr. Vinton 
knew the young man too well to be troubled by this 
frank confession, and he counseled him to go at once 
to the Seminary of the Episcopal Church at Alexan- 
dria, Virginia. Thither he betook himself, and there, 
for three memorable years, he devoted himself to the 
work of preparing himself for his chosen calling. 

Such cases make manifest how ignorant both 
of the Scriptures and of the religious life those 
persons are who insist on dates and " frames " as 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 233 

marks of conversion. In that sense neither of 
these good and great men was ever converted. 
But in the true Christian sense of turning toward 
God they were converted ; and they remained 
converted in the sense of ever facing toward God 
and working with him. Such cases, indeed, are 
the rule with the non-revival churches. It is said 
that not one in ten members of the Moravian 
communion can fix on any date when he became 
a Christian ; and the same is true for the large 
majority of the members of the German churches, 
who still are living lives of faith and trust in God. 
The emphasis on conversion as a turning to- 
ward God on the part of those who are turned 
away from him in lives of wickedness cannot be 
overdone ; but the emphasis on conversion as a 
special emotional experience with striking psy- 
chological attendants is illiteracy, both Scrip- 
tural and religious. It is a narrow provincialism 
rather than a feature of universal Christianity, 
and it is increasingly confusing to an increasing 
number of thoughtful persons. The manifest 
remedy is to return to the truth of the gospel 
and insist on obedience as the test of discipleship, 
and reject all others. Thus, on the one hand, we 
shall escape those non-ethical conversions which 
are the product of neuropathology or social con- 
tagion ; and, on the other, we shall no longer con- 



234 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

fuse honest inquirers by sending them to grope 
in the labyrinths of obscure emotional psychology 
which has been mistaken for religion. 

But what of the supernatural in the religious 
life? We have spoken of men changing their 
minds and converting themselves, whereas they 
supremely need the aid of the Holy Spirit in this 
work. These reflections will naturally occur to 
those who fail to distinguish between the theo- 
logical standpoint and that of conscious expe- 
rience. But what we have said involves no denial 
of the supernatural. Without doubt men need 
help from above in effecting these changes, but 
no more than they need it in the spiritual life in 
general. And however much supernatural assist- 
ance may be needed, the thing to be reached is 
the changed mind and heart, or the change of 
thought and feeling and direction of life. And 
the supernatural reveals itself in this power to 
become the children of God, and not at all in 
any scenic or hippodromic manifestations. In 
the former sense we affirm the supernatural with 
all conviction. Of course we cannot effectively 
turn to God without divine help, and we can- 
not persevere in righteousness without divine 
help. The saintliest souls know this best. Without 
our knowing precisely when or how, the Pelagian 
controversy has become obsolete. The Pelagians 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 235 

no longer even " vainly talk." But while we 
maintain with all strenuousness that God must 
work in us, we find the marks of his presence 
not in signs and wonders of any sort, but in the 
renewed life and the fruits of the Spirit. And 
the religious teacher must not allow ignorant and 
excitable persons to mistake neurological disturb- 
ances, without any ethical contents, for divine 
manifestation. Untrained persons, of wonder-lov- 
ing mental habit, easily fall into this mistake, 
and they must be guarded against it. 

And from this concrete ethical standpoint, 
again, the meaning of sin and the sinful life is 
equally clear. The gist of the sinful life consists 
in the willingness to do wrong and the unwilling- 
ness to do right. Some dealers in abstractions have 
thought to find something deeper than this, and 
they have proclaimed that sin is a nature, and 
that its nature is guilt. With such notions no- 
thing but a web of abstract fictions can be woven. 
And others, who have rejected this view, have 
often been so occupied with denying the exist- 
ence of any abstract sin that they have overlooked 
the undeniable fact that there is a good deal of 
concrete wrong-doing among men, and that this 
wrong-doing must be done away with if men are 
to enter into life. It would tend to real progress 
if religious teachers would postpone the study of 



236 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

sin in the abstract until we have overcome this 
■willingness to do wrong and this unwillingness 
to do right, from which both society and the 
individual so grievously suffer. If this state of 
mind could be replaced by the love and practice 
of righteousness, we should have no practical 
concern about abstract sin. 

We have made this excursion into theology 
because the phrases examined constantly recur in 
the language of experience, and give it a peculiar 
form. Our conviction is that these phrases are 
largely misunderstood from taking the impHed 
metaphor for a literal fact, or from interpreting 
them by the dictionary instead of by life. But 
however this may be, it is clear that the theo- 
logical doctrine concerning these matters must 
not be confused with the data of conscious expe- 
rience. Whatever mysterious God ward relations 
these doctrines may have is no practical concern 
of ours, and will doubtless be arranged for with- 
out our aid. This is a happy circumstance for 
most of us. A reputable work on theology lies on 
my table, in which ninety-seven octavo pages 
are devoted to " Theories of Salvation " ! But 
for the consciousness of the disciple, nothing is 
to be demanded or expected beyond the surrender, 
the devotion, the obedience, of the filial spirit. 
Theology is good, important, and even necessary 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 237 

in its place ; but we do not bring men to God by 
means of theology. Nor should we confuse the 
mind of any seeker after God by trying to cast 
his thought and experience in any dogmatic mould; 
as if one could not find God without setting forth 
a scheme of evangelical theology, duly recogniz- 
ing the several persons of the Trinity and their 
respective offices, specifying the provisions of the 
atonement, and going in order through the pro- 
gramme of repentance, faith, justification, regen- 
eration, adoption, and sanctification. Whatever 
value such a programme may have is theological, 
not psychological; it represents abstractions of 
theory rather than facts of consciousness. The 
two points of view should never be confounded. 
The life of trust and obedience is not to be se- 
cured by an examination in the catechism; and 
for bringing sinners into the kingdom of God 
we need no more theology than is contained in 
the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Let the prod- 
igals come home, trusting in the Father's love 
and mercy, and take their places as penitent and 
obedient children in their Father's house. This 
is the invitation of the gospel. 

Thus far we have warned against confounding 
experience and theology, but we have said little 
about the contents of experience itself. We come 



238 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

now to consider this question, for here also there 
has been much confusion. A good many worthy- 
people, instead of seeking to keep the command- 
ments of God and walk in his holy ways, are try- 
ing to have an experience of some sort as the test 
and verification of their religion. Here the trouble 
is due, not to a confusion of experience with 
theology, but to the setting up of a type of expe- 
rience as alone truly religious, so that the inner 
life must conform to it, or be rejected as spurious. 

This error is not without some foundation. 
The reaction against the mechanical religion of 
external rite and sacerdotal proxy could not fail 
to emphasize the religion of the inner life. Be- 
sides, it is quite incredible, if God is our Father 
and we are his children, that this relation should 
find no expression in our spiritual experience. 
Otherwise, in prayer there is no communion, in 
holy living there is no support, and the soul is 
without any contact with the divine. In that case 
religion can only become a mechanical ritual 
again. Here, then, is a real foundation for the 
demand for a self-evidencing inner life, in which 
the soul shall become aware of divine help and 
shall know that it is not alone, because the 
Father is with it. 

But this well-founded demand has often been 
so misunderstood and misinterpreted as to become 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 239 

a source of great confusion and error. Various 
subjective tests of a purely psychological and 
non-ethical type have been constructed, to which 
the genuine religious life must conform; and 
these have often wrought no small confusion. 
We now seek to clear up this subject. 

Among the doctrines of this kind which have 
a large factor of truth but which are often 
twisted into error is the witness of the Spirit, 
held in some form by all churches, but especially 
elaborated and insisted upon by my ecclesiastical 
clansmen, the Methodists. 

It is hard to get along without this doctrine, 
in order to express the conviction of the saints of 
all ages of the indwelling God. Religion is not 
all on one side, as if we prayed into the empty 
air with not even an echo in response. But, at 
the same time, how easily the doctrine can be 
distorted. The words are more definite than the 
experience, and readily awaken false expectations 
when interpreted by the dictionary. Thus it is 
said to be a fact of experience, and not merely a 
doctrine of theology. And it is further said by 
many that no one may count himself a true dis- 
ciple, or member of the divine household, until 
he has received this witness. And many good 
persons — some of the best, indeed — have been 
greatly troubled thereby. The phrase seems to 



240 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

call for a miraculous manifestation, in which 
some external power stands manifestly apart from 
ourselves, and testifies that we are received into 
the divine favor. And many persons, like the 
minister before mentioned, have watched and 
waited for some such manifestation, and as 
nothing has ever happened to them which con- 
tained any such psychological break, or which 
revealed any such apparition of another person- 
ality within the field of consciousness, they are 
left to doubt whether they ever had the witness 
of the Spirit, And as this witness is supposed to 
be a necessary mark of discipleship, they are left 
in doubt whether they are members of the di^dne 
family at all. There is special need of clearing 
up our thought on this subject, lest the truth in 
the doctrine be lost and only destructive error be 
left in its stead. 

Two considerations must be premised: One is, 
that the doctrine, whatever it may be, must not 
be held in such a way as to make void the gos- 
pel. The other is, that the experience, whatever 
it may be, cannot be confined to any single 
religious body. 

The first point is by no means always regarded. 
That one should commit himself in faith and obe- 
dience to the keeping and service of the Lord 
Jesus, is not thought to be enough. That one 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 241 

should enter upon the life of discipleship, trust- 
ing in the promises of the gospel and seeking to 
do God's will, would not suffice. One might do all 
this, and still have no right to assume the place 
of a son in the Father's house. For this he must 
wait until he receives the witness ; and the result 
often is that the object of faith and trust is not 
Christ and the Father whom he revealed, but 
rather and only certain feelings in the disciple. 
If these are present, he has confidence ; if absent, 
he has not found the Lord, or the Lord has hid- 
den his face. Thus the gospel itself is made void 
by thrusting some subjective test between the 
soul and its Saviour, the only object of faith and 
trust. 

And that this is no fictitious danger appears from 
the recent utterance of a distinguished Methodist 
ecclesiastic : " John Wesley was sent out to preach 
a knowable religion — that a man might know 
that his sins are forgiven. There is only one way 
for him to learn that. Pardon is a change in the 
divine mind concerning the sinner ; whereas God 
regarded him as a guilty sinner, he now regards 
him as a pardoned sinner. No one but God knows 
this change till he tells it. This is the old doc- 
trine of the witness of the Spirit. When we get 
a man down before the altar, we do not tell him 
his sins are forgiven. We do not know. We sim- 



242 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

ply hold him to it till God tells him ; then the 
sinner knows it." 

According to this master in Israel, then, it 
would seem that we may not venture on or rest in 
the promises of God without this special expe- 
rience. We may indeed commit ourselves to his 
service in faith and obedience, trusting in his 
mercy; but we may not have any confidence that 
our Heavenly Father accepts us even then, be- 
cause we cannot tell what takes place in the divine 
mind. This is a heresy from every standpoint, 
Scriptural and Methodistic alike. Wesley himself 
expressly rejected this interpretation of the doc- 
trine. 

Since I began writing, I have had a concrete 
illustration of the mischief of such undiscriminat- 
ing teaching. A ministerial correspondent tells 
me of a woman of more than ordinary intelligence 
in his congregation, who for nineteen years wan- 
dered in a horror of great darkness because of 
such erroneous teaching. She had been told: 
"Don't take anybody's word. When you are 
forgiven, you will know it. God will tell you." 
Almost the exact language, it will be observed, 
of the dignitary before mentioned. 

How completely such an interpretation makes 
void the gospel is manifest. Faith and trust in 
Christ and obedience to the commandments of 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 243 

God count for nothing, apart from this special 
manifestation. In opposition to such heresy let the 
Church continue to proclaim the forgiveness of 
sins to all who truly and earnestly repent of their 
sins, and intend to lead a new life, following the 
commandments of God and walking from hence- 
forth in his holy ways. 

And the second point mentioned must also be 
borne in mind. The witness of the Spirit as an 
experience of the Christian cannot be limited to 
any religious body. Conceived as a doctrine, it 
might well be held by a single body; but con- 
ceived as an experience, it must be the common 
property of all saints, so far as it is necessary to 
saintship. It would be grotesque and fantastic to 
the last degree to suppose that God does some- 
thing for Methodist saints which he does not do 
for Baptist, or Congregational, or Presbyterian, or 
Catholic saints; and it would be an impossible lack 
of charity to hold that only Methodists are saints. 
Most religious bodies have a few disciples of rigor 
and vigor who work out a sort of high-churchism 
for their own people, and question the disciple- 
ship of other bodies ; but no sane Methodist would 
venture to construct his high-churchism on this 
line of the witness. And this fact shows either 
that the doctrine must be a theological one and 
not a datum of experience, or else that the expe- 



244 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

rience itself, whatever it may be, is not so defi- 
nite as to exclude varying interpretations. 

Eeturning now to the doctrine, we find theo- 
logians very uncertain about it. There is general 
agreement that it is most important, but there is 
little agreement as to what it means. That the 
phrase itself is not to be taken in strict literalness 
is manifest. No outside being appears within the 
disciple's consciousness and literally testifies to a 
celestial fact concerning his standing in the court 
of heaven. This is what our traditional language 
would lead us to expect, but there is no warrant for 
such expectation. The phrase itself as used by Paul 
in the classical passage, Romans viii, 16, seems 
to grow out of the ancient custom of adoption. 
Paul is trying to make his readers know the grace 
and wonder of the great salvation, and avails 
himself of all the aids which familiar customs of 
society furnish. Among others he hits upon the 
custom of adoption familiar to the ancient world, 
and says : We are not aliens and strangers, but 
we are adopted into the divine family. God has 
sent forth into our hearts the Spirit of adoption 
whereby the filial spirit is wrought in us and we 
are enabled to look up to God as our Father. And 
having taken up this striking and suggestive fig- 
ure, his thought runs on to complete it. For this 
act of adoption was not done in a corner and out 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 245 

of sight, but in public and before witnesses, that 
there might be no question about it forever after. 
And with this thought he adds : And the Spirit 
itself, that same Spirit of adoption, is a fellow 
witness with our spirits, not to our spirits, but a 
fellow witness of the fact that we are children of 
God. If Paul had not been familiar with Roman 
law, there would have been no doctrine of adop- 
tion and no doctrine of the witness. 

It is not now a question of what the work of 
the Spirit within or upon the soul may be, or what 
the function of the Spirit may be in the regen- 
eration and sanctification of men. It may be the 
Spirit which works in us the filial mind and heart, 
which is the essential meaning of adoption. But 
these are theological questions, with which we 
have no present concern. We inquire only what 
the witness of the Spirit may mean as an event 
in the conscious experience of believers. And it 
is plain that this can be decided only by experi- 
ence, and not by lexicons and dictionaries. No 
etymological analysis of a metaphor will reveal 
its meaning. 

The uncertainty of theological thought on this 
subject is largely due to the perennial confusion 
of the standpoints of theology and consciousness; 
and the aberrations are due to the attempt to 
construct the doctrine as a matter of experience 



246 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

by analyzing the metaphor. The distinction be- 
tween the direct and the indirect witness illus- 
trates the uncertainty. The latter is an inference 
from the discerned presence of the fruits of the 
Spirit; but this is not thought to exhaust the 
doctrine. According to Wesley, the direct witness 
of the Spirit is ^' an inward impression upon the 
souls of believers whereby the Spirit of God di- 
rectly testifies to their spirits that they are chil- 
dren of God." This seems to be clear, but it is not. 
If the " inward impression " is produced by God, 
yet so that God himself does not appear in any 
supernatural manifestation, then we have a theo- 
logical doctrine concerning the source of the im- 
pression ; but the witness is indirect. We have 
no supernal manifestation, but the heart is 
"strangely warmed." But Mr. Wesley does not 
seem to have been willing to affirm any miraculous 
appearance, but only the conviction wrought in 
us by the Spirit that we are the children of God ; 
and this leaves us, so far as the Spirit is concerned, 
with a theological doctrine rather than a fact of 
consciousness. An experience wrought in us by 
the Spirit is one thing. An experience in which 
the Spirit is a factor of our consciousness may be 
quite another. 

Wesley's uncertainty on this point comes out 
clearly in the series of letters to Mr. John Smith 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 247 

where this question is discussed. The person who 
writes under the name of John Smith presses for 
a definition of the doctrine, and especially seeks 
to know whether the experience involves any su- 
pernatural or miraculous manifestation. Wesley 
is embarrassed by the insistence, and finally falls 
back on the statement that he holds the doctrine 
because it is revealed in the Scriptures — a fact 
which shows that he had not clearly distinguished 
between the doctrine as a truth of theology and 
as a fact of consciousness. There is no need 
to fall back on the Scriptures for proof of any- 
thing which we immediately experience. He also 
admits elsewhere that he has known a few good 
persons who do not seem to have had the wit- 
ness. Nevertheless, it is a doctrine of Scripture, 
and must be maintained on that ground. But by 
this time we have a phrase which we feel bound 
to use rather than a doctrine which we under- 
stand. At all events, it is not an experience which 
can be made a test of discipleship ; for good per- 
sons exist who have not had it. 

In fact, this doctrine of the witness of the 
Spirit, as held in the Methodist church, is to be 
historically rather than exegetically or psycho- 
logically understood. We gather its historical 
meaning from the errors against which the found- 
ers of Methodism aimed their protest. These were 



248 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

twofold. On the one hand, the State Church had 
largely fallen a prey to sacerdotalism and reli- 
gious mechanism. What with baptismal regen- 
eration and sacramentarianism, the masses of its 
adherents had fallen into the notion that the 
Church would look after their salvation; and 
thus they failed to attain to any personal piety. 
In opposition to all this, the Methodist fathers 
summoned men to heart religion, setting forth 
the worthlessness of forms, rites, proxies, and in- 
sisting that every one should for himself expe- 
rience the grace of God in the soul. To the hear- 
say and magic of baptismal regeneration, and the 
mechanism of rites and institutions, they opposed 
the self-evidencing life of the Spirit. 

Again, at that time both the State and the 
Nonconforming churches were largely under the 
influence of Calvinistic doctrine, and also of the 
notion that religion is preeminently a matter of 
orthodox belief. The Calvinistic teaching concern- 
ing the perseverance of the saints made it morally 
unsafe to teach a doctrine of assurance ; and the 
heresy of orthodoxy tended to reduce religion to 
a barren intellectual assent to notional dogmas. 
In addition, God's goodness was so limited in any 
case, and the outlook for man was so grim, that 
there was little room or reason for joy in religion. 

Ao^ainst all these errors the Methodist fathers 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 249 

protested. For them, religion must be more than 
a machinery of rites and sacraments, and more 
than correctness of belief. It was no hearsay 
matter, but a conscious life, which found its 
great witness in itself. They also denied with 
all vehemence the Calvinistic conception of God 
and his government, and thus made love and joy 
possible once more. And to express this convic- 
tion of life at first hand, and this joy in the Lord, 
they very naturally fell back on the witness of 
the Spirit. In the circumstances of the time it 
was practically a new doctrine, or a rediscovery 
of an old one. But the essential thing in it was 
the denial of the Calvinistic nightmare, the em- 
phasis on personal religion, and the spiritual 
assurance which arises in the life of faith and 
obedience. This was historically the essential 
meaning and strength of the doctrine, and this it 
was that kept it sane and sweet. It was mainly a 
practical doctrine, and it was only under polemi- 
cal stress that it ran off into doubtful exegesis and 
into theological and metaphysical interpretations. 
Thus the doctrine became prominent, and while 
thus practically held, it was true and fundamen- 
tal. The attempt to give it a theoretical standing 
was rather confusing than otherwise. The multi- 
tudinous experiences of joy, and even of emo- 
tional excitement; were gathered up into the doc- 



250 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

trine ; and all these were accepted as the witness 
of the Spirit, because that was the way in which 
we regarded the matter. Nowadays more dis- 
crimination is needed ; but the essential conten- 
tion of the fathers must never be lost sight of, 
that religion is the ideal of religious training and 
development, and that this personal life must 
justify itself as true and divine within the con- 
sciousness of the disciple himself. 

Now looking away from the form this doc- 
trine has had in Methodist teaching, the general 
fact of Christian experience is this : The sincere 
and continued attempt to be disciples of Christ 
results in the conviction that we are in the right 
way, that we are on the Lord's side and he is on 
our side ; and this conviction grows from more 
to more as the life broadens and deepens. The 
new life takes firmer hold and strikes deeper 
root; and as the soul grows in grace and the 
knowledge of the truth, this life becomes more 
and more rooted in the conviction of its divine 
origin. Under the influence of Christian teaching, 
the believer will adjust his experience to the 
forms of Christian thought and doctrine ; and as 
we view the Spirit as the immediate agent in the 
purification, sanctification, and upbuilding of the 
soul, we naturally come to regard our graces, or 
strength, or joy, our peace, our rest in God, as 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 251 

wrought in us by the Spirit, as the marks of his 
presence, as the witness he perpetually bears in 
us to our being children of God. And this is all 
the witness of the Spirit means in general. What 
peculiar manifestations it may please God to 
make in certain crises of life or moments of spirit- 
ual exaltation, or what revelations he may make 
to particular persons, we may not decide; but 
such things are not to be demanded of any one 
as conditions or marks of sonship. For the great 
body of believers the fact of experience will be 
what we have described. If any claim that they 
have had more abundant manifestations, we do 
not deny that it may be so. At the same time we 
reserve the right to apply to all such claims the 
supreme test : By their fruits ye shall know them. 
If, as often happens, these alleged manifestations 
are accompanied by no increase of moral and 
religious effectiveness, they will have no practi- 
cal significance ; and if, as is sometimes the case, 
the receivers of the alleged manifestations are not 
remarkable for mental force and moral character, 
there will be good ground for thinking that they 
have misheard the voices. 

If it be said that the witness as thus described 
is no witness but only an inference, the answer is 
that the meaning of a doctrine cannot be fixed 
by analyzing a metaphor, and that this is the 



252 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

only witness which it pleases God to ^ve to 
most of his children. But when the doctrine is so 
understood as to subordinate even our faith in 
Christ and his gospel to some form of emotional 
experience, it becomes a pestilent heresy. We are 
not called to have experiences, or witnesses, or 
manifestations of any sort, but to be followers of 
Jesus. Whatever experiences of joy or peace or 
aspiration may come in this life of discipleship 
are to be welcomed, but they are never to be 
erected into tests of salvation. 

Historically, the doctrine of the inner life as 
held in the Church has been confused and am- 
biguous. The one feature that is forever true 
and important is the emphasis on personal and 
spiritual religion, in distinction from all proxy 
and mechanical religion. This cannot be too 
much emphasized as the religious ideal. But 
along with this has often appeared a tendency to 
erect some form of psychological experience into 
religion itself. This has given rise to much mis- 
direction and confusion which we now consider. 

The training and development of souls as the 
children of God is God's essential purpose in the 
creation of men. Our human life is to be dealt 
with from this point of view ; and the religious 
teacher must fashion his instruction and direct 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 253 

his effort in accordance with this fundamental 
truth. His aim must be to help men to a conscious- 
ness of the divine purpose, and to bring them 
into obedience to it. This recognition of the di- 
vine will, this filial trust and obedience, are the 
heart of religion and the central meaning of sal- 
vation. But the attainment of this end is often 
hindered, and even thwarted, by misconceptions 
against which we must be on our guard. 

The emphasis which some churches have placed 
upon the emotional aspects of religion has not 
infrequently led to grave distortions of the truth. 
Emotion is good; and an emotionless religion 
would be a very questionable affair. Nevertheless 
it is easy to invert the true order, and this has 
often been done. Attention has been withdrawn 
from the solemn surrender of the will and life to 
God in order to engage in a barren hunt after 
emotions. This is inverted in every way, both 
religiously and psychologically. We must make 
clear to the inquirer that he is to consider him- 
self as no longer his own, but as being in all 
things the disciple of the Lord Jesus and the 
servant of God. The exceeding breadth and depth 
and height of the commandment must be made 
plain, so that he may see how all-inclusive is the 
service of God. And, on the other hand, emo- 
tions are never to be aimed at as things by them- 



254 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

selves at all. In order to be wholesome and ra- 
tional, emotions must spring from ideas; and 
religious emotions must spring from religious 
ideas. When sought by themselves and for them- 
selves they have neither rational nor moral sig- 
nificance, but are purely neurological or patho- 
logical. Religious emotions of this sort differ in 
nothing from the excitement of the howling or 
whirling dervishes. This is the source of the 
marked ethical weakness of popular revival ser- 
vices, and of the lack of moral fibre in so many 
alleged conversions. 

It follows from this that religious emotions are 
not to be directly sought. They are to come as 
the unforced attendants of our religious faith and 
devotion and obedience. When thus coming, they 
are wholesome, helpful, and natural. In every 
other case they are unwholesome, harmful, and 
unnatural. Indeed, emotions, as an affection of 
the sensibility, have so complex a root, and are so 
complicated with physical conditions, that they 
are generally worthless as a test of will and char- 
acter. Even those relations in daily life which 
are founded on affection, as the relations of the 
family, admit of no test of the emotional sort. 
Devotion shows itself chiefly in service ; and it is 
only at special times, in some crisis perhaps, that 
the emotional sensibility is deeply stirred. Love 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 255 

itself abides in the will rather than in the feeling, 
and its distinguishing mark consists in the set 
purpose to please and to serve. And this is true 
of our love for God. It is to be found in the con- 
secration of the life and the devotion of the will ; 
not in ebullitions of the sensibilities, but in the 
fixed purpose to please and to serve. If, along 
with this, the heart should be " strangely warmed," 
there is no objection ; but, after all, the root of 
the matter must be found in the life of devotion 
and service. " If ye love me, keep my command- 
ments." " Not every one that saith unto me. Lord, 
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven ; but 
he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven." ^* And hereby we do know that we know 
him, if we keep his commandments. He that 
saith, I know him, and keepth not his command- 
ments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 
" Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I com- 
mand you." Such passages as these show that 
the essential test of discipleship is ethical and 
volitional, not emotional; and their frequent oc- 
currence shows a purpose to ward off the very 
error in question. 

Obedience, then, is the only test of discipleship 
recognized by the Master; and he spoke very 
sharply of eloquent divines who prophesied in 
his name and did many wonderful works, yet 



256 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

were workers of iniquity. Though we should 
speak with the tongues of men and of angels, 
and had not obedience, we should be but sound- 
ing brass and clanging cymbals. And though we 
spoke in the social meeting, and were eloquent in 
public prayer, and bore testimony to wonderful 
outpourings and upliftings and spiritual manifes- 
tations far beyond those of common Christians, 
and had not obedience, it would profit us nothing. 
And though we had a wonderful conversion and 
became quite unconscious through the exceeding 
abundance of the outpouring, and had not obedi- 
ence, we should be nothing. The Master mentions 
none of these things as conditions or tests of dis- 
cipleship ; but he was very particular about obedi- 
ence. When he called Simon and Andrew and 
James and John, they left all and followed him, 
and thus became his disciples ; and the same rule 
holds still. 

A frequent consequence of this error concern- 
ing emotion is that the attention of the inquirer 
is diverted from the central and essential thing, 
the surrender of the will and life to God, and 
fixed upon having an experience. This experience 
is crudely conceived as a striking emotional event, 
which must be of extraordinary character in order 
to meet the expectation. Thus the volitional and 
ethical element, which is essential, is subordinated 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 257 

to a passive and emotional element, which in any 
case is only a non-essential attendant of religious 
consecration, and which, in many cases, is purely 
pathological. That it is such in a great many 
eases appears from the fearful disproportion be- 
tween the number of reported converts and the 
number of those received into church membership. 
Who can believe that such disproportion would 
exist, if the inquirer had been rightly instructed, 
and had solemnly, intelligently, ethically devoted 
and consecrated himself to do the will of God? 
Emotional effervescence may subside in this way, 
but intelligent and moral self-consecration does 
not. There is so much confusion on this point that 
the majority of inquirers are aiming to have an 
experience rather than to surrender themselves 
to God in faith and obedience. And with this 
false aim they fail to " get through," or to " come 
out into the light." They are seeking after some 
sign, instead of fixing their thought on the sur- 
render of themselves in faith to the Lord Jesus 
to be his disciples. Often enough the sign is not 
given them, and then comes the familiar sense 
of uncertainty and artificiality in religion. 

In opposition to this error, our attention should 
always be directed to securing filial submission 
to the will of God. The inquirer must be in- 
structed, if need be, in Christian truth. His 



258 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

thought must be made familiar -with the grace 
of God and the gracious provisions of the gospel. 
Peace and joy will naturally arise in the penitent 
soul as it contemplates this grace and yields it- 
self to it in trust and obedience. But their form 
and measure will vary very greatly with different 
persons according to education, temperament, 
and many other circumstances. But the disciple 
must not concern himself about them. Loving 
submission and active obedience to the will of 
God in accordance with the promises of Christ are 
the supreme and only mark of Christian disciple- 
ship. We are not called upon to have experiences, 
or emotional upheavals, or witnesses of the Spirit ; 
but we are called upon to surrender ourselves in 
faith and humility to do the will of God. Cease 
to do evil, learn to do well, is the only infallible 
test of conversion. 

The attitude of the will, then, is the central 
thing in the Christian life. But in applying this 
truth we must guard against an extravagance, 
often amounting to positive error, which may 
arise at this point. We are often told that we 
must be willing to do whatsoever God may 
require, to give up all for Christ, etc. ; and this 
admits of easy exaggeration. Formally, the state- 
ment is correct ; but the concrete meaning is not 
always plain. Negatively, the meaning is simple. 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 269 

We must cease to do evil; any recognized 
iniquity, impiety, unrighteousness, wickedness, 
must be put away unhesitatingly, irrevocably, 
forever. That one should call himself the child 
of God while working the works of the devil is 
not to be thought of for a moment. 

But the positive contents of the idea are very 
crudely conceived. We often fall a prey to mere 
abstractions of theory without duly regarding the 
realities of life. Error here may take a double 
direction. We may fall into an abstract concep- 
tion of renunciation, and we may misconceive 
the relation of God's will to the great every-day 
life of work and social relations. The former 
error is illustrated by the fancy of some of the 
older New England theologians, that no one 
could be saved who was not willing to be damned 
for the glory of God. Of course, a good closet 
argument could be made for this abomination. 
One might say that, so long as anything was pre- 
ferred to the divine glory, one had not fully sub- 
mitted to the will of God ; was keeping back a 
part of the price therefore, like Ananias; or, like 
Achan, had a wedge of gold and a Babylonish 
garment concealed in one's tent. Thorough work, 
then, could be made only by insisting upon will- 
ingness to be damned for the divine glory. This 
was the only sure test of selfishness. The purely 



260 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

fictitious and inhuman character of this demand 
is apparent. The only good thing that ever came 
out of it is the reported reply of an applicant to 
the examining committee which pressed the ques- 
tion, that he was willing the committee should 
be damned if need be. 

We have escaped such excesses ; but a great 
deal of unwisdom is still current on this point. 
Vague general remarks abound about taking up 
the cross, the surrender of this and that, the will- 
ingness to do a variety of disagreeable things ; 
and these are often made the test of discipleship. 
Religious exhortation is full of matter of this 
sort; and inquirers are left to torment themselves 
with the fancy that anything which revolts their 
taste or sensibility, or some purely imaginary 
thing, as a willingness to go as a missionary to 
Van Diemen's Land, or to address some stranger 
on the street concerning his soul, is a part of the 
cross which must be taken up, if one would enter 
into life. They are also led to think that an 
unwillingness to speak in public when they have 
nothing to say is to be ashamed of Jesus, or to 
do despite to the spirit of grace. And, on the 
other hand, an unbecoming and unedifying vol- 
ubility is often encouraged from the idea that 
thus the power of grace is triumphantly dis- 
played. The following quotation from a religious 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 261 

paper of recent publication illustrates the former 
error : — 

Then the Lord God said to me : " David, are you 
willing to consecrate yourself ? " " Yes, Lord. Every- 
thing, everything." And he brought one thing after 
another in this way : " Are you willing to leave your 
situation if I ask you ? " I was quite willing. "Would 
you go to Africa to be eaten by cannibals ? " I was 
willing to do even that. Then the Lord said : " Would 
you leave your wife at home and go anywhere ? " Oh, 
I was n't willing ! It was very hard to leave my dear 
wife behind and go anywhere. Then a fight went on in 
my heart. I did n't want to yield that ; but the Lord 
brought Christ very prominently before me, and he 
said that he must be first and my wife in the second 
place. Then he brought before me the responsibility 
of heathen souls, Mohammedans, Buddhists, and others. 
" David, are you willing to leave all to win souls?" 
Then it came to me : " What am I to do ? The Lord 
will take care of my wife " ; and I said, " O Lord, I 
am willing to leave my wife behind and go anywhere.'* 
Then the struggle ceased. " Would you like to become 
as the dust of Colombo for my sake ? " Yes, I was will- 
ing. The Lord searched me through and through. 

All this is purely fictitious. The Lord said 
none of these things ; they were suggested solely 
by the author's own misguided mind. The Lord 
often calls us to sacrifice and renunciation, but 
never in any such artificial fashion as this. The 
person simply had in his mind the abstract notion 



262 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of complete surrender to God, and then pro- 
ceeded to determine the concrete contents of 
the duty by calling up a miscellaneous collection 
of things to which he might be disinclined. Mean- 
while reason and good sense were in complete 
abeyance, because of the fancy that all of these 
things were directly suggested by God as tests of 
the person's sincerity. The reference to leaving 
his wife is paralleled only by the testimony of a 
brother in class-meeting who reported that his wife 
had died, and that he had been so wonderfully 
supported by divine grace that he had not missed 
her at all or felt any sorrow. The leader had the 
grace and good sense to tell him never to repeat 
that story again, as it revealed inhuman insensi- 
bility rather than divine support. 

But with the uninstructed and sensitive con- 
science, misconceptions of this sort are likely to 
arise when one is testing his willingness to do the 
will of God. And it is not to be wondered at that 
many good Christians have been unwilling to 
have their children exposed to such crude and 
undiscriminating teaching. Of course the intel- 
lectually and morally pachydermatous are un- 
harmed, but with the sensitive and uninstructed 
conscience the danger is great. And the danger 
is double. On the one hand there is danger of 
falling into fictitious sacrifices and mortifications; 



THE CHKISTIAN LIFE 263 

and on the other there is danger of a perma- 
nent revolt ao:ainst relisrion when at last the 
fiction is seen through. I have had ample experi- 
ence of both results. 

There is great need at this point for the wise 
Christian teacher, in order to save the untaught 
or inexperienced from these dangers. He must 
distinguish between the positive and negative 
aspects of this surrender to the divine will. Its 
negative meaning, we have said, is clear; it 
involves the utter and final abandonment or 
avoidance of all unrighteousness and iniquity. On 
the positive side we must emphasize the central 
and primal duties about which there is no ques- 
tion. We must teach the inquirer to relate his 
life, internal and external, to the divine will, and 
especially to comprehend the daily round of 
routine life and of social relations, the round of 
work and rest, of neighborly intercourse and 
civic duties, within the divine thought and pur- 
pose, and thus within the scope of religion. But 
we must resolutely defend the inquirer from all 
this unwholesome casuistry concerning cross-bear- 
ing, and testifying, and fictitious self -crucifixions, 
and imaginary duties, and trumped-up sacrifices. 
Ignorant conscientiousness can settle none of 
these questions. We must fall back on good 
sense, that general sense of reality and soundness 



264 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

without which the moral life becomes a series of 
snares and loses itself in silliness or fanaticism. 
We must point out that the essence of religion 
lies in the filial spirit, in the desire to serve and 
please God; and then we must point out that 
our all-inclusive religious duty is to offer up the 
daily life, pervaded and sanctified by the filial 
spirit, as our spiritual service and worship of God. 

But how shall we know when we have done 
enough ? This is a question which roots partly in 
the unwholesome casuistry referred to, and partly 
in a desire to get o£E as cheaply as possible. In 
the latter case it shows that we have neither part 
nor lot in the matter. We are trying to conceive 
a spiritual relaHon mechanically, and we miss the 
spiritual element altogether. By consequence we 
assume that salvation may be something external, 
and we desire to get it at the best bargain. Such 
notions arise from our non-ethical conceptions of 
the subject, and disappear forever when we see 
that salvation must consist in establishing or re- 
storing the filial spirit in the heart. 

The question, as rooted in casuistry, overlooks 
the essential truth of the gospel. The question 
for the Christian to raise is, not whether he has 
done enough, but whether he is seeking to live 
in the filial spirit. The latter question no one can 
answer for him, and he needs no one to answer 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 265 

it for him. As to doing enough, no one does 
enough. There is no satisfaction in doing. We 
are at best unprofitable servants. We can always 
wonder whether we might not have done more, 
strained a little harder, reached a greater inten- 
sity of effort. That way madness lies. On such 
a view one's salvation is a sort of Rupert's drop, 
and is likely to fly into flinders at any moment. 

To all such questions we reply by falling back 
on the gospel itself. We are not members of the 
divine family because we are profitable servants, 
but because God has declared us to be his chil- 
dren. We stand not in the value of our services, 
but in the divine love. And that love bears with 
our imperfect, halting service, and takes the will 
for the deed. This is the gist and glory of the 
gospel. It cannot be understood in forensic and 
mechanical terms, but it is perfectly intelligible 
through the life of the family or the gratitude of 
a penitent heart. No child has its place in the 
family because of the value and merit of its ser- 
vices, but because it is a child. It is saved by grace, 
not by works. But being a child, it can show 
forth the fiHal spirit in word and deed, and paren- 
tal love does all the rest. Membership in the divine 
family is similarly conditioned. 

We must, then, declare the forgiveness of sins 
to all those who do truly and earnestly repent of 



266 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

their sins and intend to lead a new life, following 
the commandments of God, and walking from 
henceforth in his holy ways. And this we do in 
the name and on the authority of the Lord Jesus, 
who has revealed the Father. And we must allow 
nothing to interfere with the simplicity of this 
revelation. Mechanical conditions of mechanical 
works, and subjective conditions framed from 
emotional states, are alike and equally departures 
from the truth of the gospel. 

The religious life in its idea is altogether in- 
dependent of the existence of sin. We are not, 
then, to think of it as a device for overcoming 
sin or for saving sinners. This work, indeed, has 
to be done ; but it is only incidental to the deeper, 
more inclusive aim of religion. Religion has to 
do with the relation of man to God, and would 
exist if there were no sin in the world or in the 
heart. Indeed, it is only in the sinless Hfe that 
the ideal of religion can be perfectly realized ; 
for only there can we find the filial spirit per- 
fectly realized and perfectly expressed. 

In what we have now to say, some readers of 
theological tendencies will miss a good deal of 
traditional matter concerning the relation of the 
sinner to God's law, etc. ; but we have once more 
to remind them that this, in its best estate, is 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 267 

matter of theology and not of experience. What- 
ever mysteries there may be in that direction, we 
have no practical concern v^ith them. We have 
only to accept our place as children in our 
Father's house ; and we must not confuse this 
simple truth of the gospel with matter drawn 
from theology. 

If human development were normal, there 
would be no need of conversion, that is, of a 
turning around, or a turning toward God ; for we 
should never have turned away from him. We 
should simply pass from the unconsciousness and 
passivity of dawning life to the distinct con- 
sciousness and volitional attitude of mature life. 
And this transition would be made slowly, and 
without break or jar, something as the dawn 
comes up. As in the family life no one can tell, 
in the child's unfolding, when love and obedi- 
ence begin, so in the normal development of the 
religious life no one can tell when it begins. 
The inner life has none of the sharp divisions of 
our speech ; and consciousness fades away from 
clear apprehension and distinct volition into 
incipiencies, and uncertain dawnings, and shad- 
owy beginnings, where directions may possibly 
be discerned, but no fixed lines can be drawn. 
In such normal unfolding there might be great 
individual differences of experience, owing to 



268 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

differences of temperament and mental habit. 
With the more reflective the recognition and 
acceptance of the divine will might be a matter 
of more definite date, but they would be no more 
real on that account than they would be in a life 
of less sharply marked transitions. And with 
such reflective person such a date might well be 
a time forever to be remembered unto the Lord; 
but it would not mark a conversion, but only a 
conscious affirmation and ratification of what had 
already been unconsciously done. 

In actual life the nearest approximation to such 
normal religious development is found in the 
Christian family. Here, too, the aim should be, 
not conversion, but to bring the children up in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; and the 
necessity of conversion, or a turning from sin to 
God and righteousness, hints strongly at parental 
failure, either to grasp the truth of the gospel or 
to realize it in the family life. The ideal form of 
the Christian life is that which never experienced 
conversion, and which cannot date its beginning. 
And if one says. But there must be a time of 
distinct choice between God and the world, etc., 
the answer would be that at best this only fixes 
the beginning of self-consciousness in rehgion 
and not the beginning of religion itself. And in- 
deed self-consciousness can rarely be thus accu- 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 269 

rately dated ; but religion in the properly trained 
Christian child has complex and untraceable be- 
ginnings in the spirit and atmosphere of the home, 
in childhood's prayers, in participation in religious 
rites and customs, in imitation of those about him, 
in wise parental instruction and discipline, and 
in the hidden influence of the Holy Spirit. These 
things cannot be dated. The date of self-con- 
sciousness in choice and consecration might con- 
ceivably be fixed in the case of the Christian child; 
but even this is rarely possible and it is unimpor- 
tant in any case. When does filial affection begin 
in the growing child, or patriotism in the develop- 
ing youth? The important thing is not to know 
when the day begins, but to have the day actu- 
ally here. 

Divine grace and help are always needed and 
by all alike; but conversion as an event in con- 
scious experience is needed only for those who, 
from evil training or from willful transgression, 
have turned away from God. All such persons 
must convert themselves ; that is, must turn around 
and turn towards God and righteousness. But in 
all cases the thing aimed at is the same, the es- 
tablishment of the filial spirit as the ruling prin- 
ciple of life and action. Where the filial spirit is 
consciously present we have the children of the 
kingdom. Where it is consciously absent we have 



270 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

the cnildren of disobedience. Where there is no 
consciousness as yet of the higher goods and re- 
lations of life we have simply the sub-religious 
state in which so many human beings exist, and 
out of which they are to develop through the 
multiform discipHne and experience of life. Mean- 
while they are the objects of the divine grace, and 
are comprised in an order divinely appointed for 
their development and unfolding into deeper and 
higher life. Hard-and-fast divisions and classifi- 
cations are impossible in such an order; and fo- 
rensic distinctions are as grotesquely impossible as 
they would be in the life of the family. Mean- 
while it is the task of the Christian teacher and 
of the mature disciple to cooperate with the divine 
love by setting forth and revealing the higher 
life by pi-eeept and example, both personally and 
through the organized institutions of the Christian 
family and the Church. 

And in doing this work it is important to re- 
member that the religious life, except in its cen- 
tral factor of the filial and obedient spirit, is no 
simple and single thing which is present always 
and all at once and to all alike. On the contrary, 
the contents of religious experience vary with the 
disciple's age, temperament, mental type, and na- 
ture of his previous life. The Christian life is one 
in principle, but in form and contents it is as 
varied as humanity itself. 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 271 

This truth has not been duly regarded by the 
churches which emphasize conversion and per- 
sonal experience. The tendency has been to con- 
struct a pattern to which all should conform ; and 
this pattern has largely been built out of subjec- 
tive emotional states and various marks of grace 
which only, it was thought, clearly distinguish 
the work of the Spirit from spurious imitations. 
This was generally harmless when we were deal- 
ing with hardened sinners, but it became mischiev- 
ous when applied to the religion of childhood 
and to the religious life that should develop under 
the influence of a Christian home and in a Chris- 
tian community. Owing to the confusion of the- 
ology with experience, or to the undue estimate 
of emotional factors, the popular ideal of the 
religious life in our individualistic churches has 
little application to the larger part of the com- 
munity. 

In order to escape the confusion and inadequacy 
of traditional thought on this general subject, we 
must observe that the religious life is manifold in 
content and manifestation according to the age^ 
the mental type, and one's experience of hfe. 

Apart from the variations dependent upon age, 
temperament, and the vicissitudes of the individ- 
ual lot, there are distinct types of rehgious thought 



272 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

and feeling, all of which are equally founded in 
human nature, and no one of which may set itself 
up as the norm or ideal by which the others may 
be tested. 

The first type is the ethical. Religion consists 
in righteousness; but it is more than abstract 
ethics, because the moral law, from being an im- 
personal principle, is elevated into the expression 
of a supreme and holy will. The regard for im- 
personal abstractions is replaced by enthusiasm 
for the kingdom of God. Christianity summons 
us to be members of this kingdom and co-workers 
with God in its establishment. Under the lead of 
the Captain of our salvation, and relying on his 
word and promises, we become conscious subjects 
of the kingdom. In quiet times, and with per- 
sons of wholesome training and habits, or with 
persons of unemotional type, and especially with 
children, this is the prevailing type of Christian ex- 
perience. It is not markedly emotional. It is not 
given to fervors, whether of joy or remorse. It has 
no deep distress over the depravity of our nature, 
and no flaming raptures over our deliverance. 
But it is founded in conscience ; and a very large 
part of the work of the Church is done by the 
Christians of this type. This is the Christianity 
of the Synoptic Gospels, and of the epistles of 
James and Peter. 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 273 

But this is not the only type. It is fundamen- 
tal, indeed, and any type which does not include 
it is false. But it does not include the whole of 
Christian experience. There are souls which can 
be satisfied with their obedience to God's law. 
They hear the commandment, and they obey; 
and the joy of a good conscience is theirs. But 
there are other souls which can never find peace 
in this way. For them the commandment is ex- 
ceedingly broad. It is not a matter of detached 
duties, but takes account of the heart. They 
hold their lives up against the keen, still splendor 
of the divine perfection, and they are over- 
whelmed by the revelation. For such persons 
there is no peace in doing. The more they do 
the worse they feel. For the ideal grows with 
obedience and thus condemns them more and 
more. For this state of mind there is only one 
prescription. They must be taken out of them- 
selves and away from the contemplation of their 
own efforts, and must be taught that we are 
saved by grace, not works. Then their distress is 
removed by the vision of that condescending 
grace from above which saves us through itself. 
This is the Pauline type of Christian experience. 
It is not more truly Christian than the purely 
ethical type, but it is different. It is more in- 
tense, and touches the moral life at deeper depths. 



274 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

With persons of a mechanical type it may pass 
over into Antinomianism, and thus, in revolting 
from bondage to rules, become the extreme of 
immorality. But when rightly understood, when 
interpreted vitally and ethically, it includes the 
obedience of the ethical type, but transcends it 
by a higher moral ideal and insight. 

Another type of Christian experience arises 
from the desire for direct personal communion 
with God. If God indeed dwell within us, there 
must be some other way of reaching him than 
by hearsay, whether of the Bible, or of theology, 
or of the Church. And if we are his children, 
there must be some way of direct communion 
with our Father. Besides, the life of work is 
only part of experience. There is also the life of 
contemplation, of secret aspiration, of adoration 
and worship. And this certainly cannot all be on 
one side, as if we prayed into the empty air with 
no answer but the echo of our own voices. Here 
the mystical element of religion reveals itself. 
And this, too, is a real aspect of the religious 
life ; not equally recognized by all, and scarcely 
realized at all by many, but important neverthe- 
less. It is represented by the writings of St. 
John in the New Testament, by the various 
bodies of mystics in church history, and by mul- 
titudes of individual saints. As said, it belongs 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 275 

to the contemplative rather than the active side 
of religion ; but it is important, even for practice, 
by furnishing the living water, without which 
life loses its deepest spring. 

The perfect Christian life would involve all of 
these forms of experience ; but in our one-sided 
life, one form or another predominates, and then 
we have to be on our guard against the short- 
comings of that form. For each form has ten- 
dencies to error, which will surely develop unless 
proper precaution be taken. The ethical form by 
itself may easily issue in Pharisaism and spiritual 
pride. When the spiritual nature is not deep, 
duty is exhausted in commandments ; and if any- 
thing more be suspected, it is simply another 
commandment. The young man who had kept 
the law from his youth up, or the Pharisee who 
recited his good deeds in his prayers, furnishes 
a fair specimen of the tendency and the danger. 
And this can be averted only by enlarging the 
moral insight, and replacing a code of isolated 
good works by the law of perfect purity and per- 
fect love. This only can cause the self-satisfied 
Pharisee to exchange his vainglorious prayers for 
the cry of the publican, " God be merciful to me 
a sinner ! " The ethical type, also, from its pre- 
eminent attention to conduct and action, tends to 
become dry and thin, and to lose itself in ineffec- 



276 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

tual bustle, while the spiritual life withers. This, 
too, can be avoided only by the deepening and 
enriching influences of prayer and meditation, 
and of spiritual communion with the Father of 
our spirits. Thus the ethical type of religious 
life always needs to be combined with the other 
types, in order to save it from its own short- 
comings. 

But they equally need to be combined with 
the ethical type to save them from their own 
shortcomings. When one has sought in vain for 
peace through mechanical good works or strenu- 
ous conscientiousness, there is no more glorious 
truth than this, that we are saved by grace 
through faith ; but this becomes a pernicious and 
immoral doctrine unless it be ethically appre- 
hended and applied. How often this danger has 
been realized is familiar to every student of 
church history. The contemplative life also easily 
loses itself in quietistic indifference to the work 
of the world, or in a barren cultivation of emo- 
tions, in which all moral quality and moral 
strenuousness disappear altogether. Now, while 
the ethical view needs to be deepened by the 
others, they, in turn, need the ethical view to 
give them fibre and substance, and to furnish the 
active nature of man a worthy task. And this 
can be found only in recalling the mind from 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 277 

painful inspection of its own states, and from 
quietistic dreaming and contemplation, and set- 
ting it upon the positive task of realizing the 
kingdom of God in the world. The ethical view 
is fundamental and central ; and however far we 
may go in religious fervor and aspiration, we 
must never lose sight of the ethical aim. All 
truly religious growth and insight must be based 
on this. And one of the promising features of 
the present religious outlook is the tendency to 
pay less attention to subjective states and more 
to the objective aim of building up the kingdom 
of God, which is the kingdom of righteousness 
and good-will. 

Even at the expense of some repetition it is 
desirable further to insist on righteousness and 
obedience as the central thing in religion. It is 
well known that the non-Christian religions have 
largely ignored righteousness as a religious fac- 
tor ; and even in the Christian Church it has 
been no uncommon thing to find something else 
made fundamental. Apart from the coarser errors 
of this kind, which need no condemnation, there 
are others of a more refined sort, which also arise 
from the failure to make righteousness the cen- 
tral thing. There are feelings which gather around 
the aesthetic and contemplative side of religion, 
and which are easily mistaken for religion. For 



278 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

any fairly developed mind of normal character, 
religion must be a profoundly interesting subject 
of reflection. It takes hold on the unseen and 
the eternal. It holds a philosophy of existence — 
the key to the puzzles of life, the solution of its 
problems, the harmony of its discords, the mean- 
ing of all finite being. We are thrown back upon 
it when we contemplate the tragedy of human 
life. Art and poetry cry out for it. Our sense 
of dependence and incompleteness forces us upon 
it. Nameless longings and voiceless aspirations 
find in religion their expression. Under these and 
similar influences the human mind has developed 
its great religious forms. 

The spirit of reverence demands that all things 
shall be fittingly done, and naturally seeks to 
body forth the feelings of awe and aspiration 
and worship in rite and ceremony and music and 
symbol and architecture, which thus become the 
visible speech of the otherwise dumb souls of 
men. In this way were produced the great church 
buildings, the religious music, the splendid rituals 
and liturgies, and the whole system of religious 
symbolism. Much of this is needed for the full 
expression of man's religious nature ; and when 
that which is perfect is come we shall have these 
things also in perfection. 

But these things, though connected with re- 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 279 

Hgion, are not religion in God's sight. They are 
simply the aesthetic or contemplative side or aspect 
of religion. Persons of taste and culture, or of 
contemplative mental type, are easily affected by 
this aspect, and easily mistake their delight in it 
for religion. But the feelings which arise from 
a well-ordered religious service, or from soaring 
architecture, or from the harmonious blending of 
dim religious lights, or 

Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault 
The pealmg anthem swells the note of praise — 

such feelings may be only aesthetic emotions 
with no trace of heart love and devotion. Like- 
wise the sad delight, the pensive tenderness, the 
speechless longings developed in passive contem- 
plation of life and its vicissitudes and mysteries, 
may have nothing of religion in them. They 
may even be incompatible with special inhu- 
manity, just as grief over the woes of a character 
of fiction is no security for tenderness of heart. 
When these things are cut loose from righteous- 
ness, or are viewed as ends in themselves, they 
become an abomination to the Lord and to every 
enlightened conscience. It is easy for any one in 
contemplative moments, or in a religious crowd, 
or in the presence of religious ideas which make 
no present demands upon the will, to have pleas- 



280 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

ing and lofty religious emotions, and to fancy 
one's self religious on that account. The prac- 
tical enmity is asleep, and the evil and forbidden 
courses are forgotten. The music, the aesthetic 
impressiveness of the service, the contagion of 
social excitement, and even the grandeur of the 
divine character, combine to impress us and to 
hide from us the set rebellion of the will. No- 
thing but life will reveal this. Balaam had fine 
religious feeling and insight, and was something 
of a poet withal, but, along with it all and ruin- 
ing it all, he loved the wages of unrighteousness. 
And he has many descendants in both pew and 
pulpit. 

And often we find persons who, as a matter 
of temperament and constitution, have a devo- 
tional, meditative, contemplative religious gift. 
They abound in the East. The Catholic Church 
furnishes more examples than the Protestant 
churches, but specimens are everywhere to be 
found. They have a natural talent for religion. 
This, too, is to be desired as a preparation for 
religion. It secures a religious naturalness and 
ease and propriety which can hardly be other- 
wise obtained. But this is not religion at all 
until it is brought into connection with right- 
eousness and the fundamental aim to do the 
will of God. So far as it falls short of this it is 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 281 

purely a matter of temperament, and may be ut- 
terly selfish and irreligious. Indeed, some of the 
Church's subtlest temptations and worst aber- 
rations from the spirit of the Master come from 
aesthetic feeling and good taste. Unless we are 
on our guard and are filled with our Lord's love 
for men, it is easy to be so scandalized with the 
bad grammar, and stumbling speech, and dis- 
cordant singing, and generally bad social form 
and lack of style, as to feel in our hearts that 
perhaps it would be better if the masses kept by 
themselves in religion as in other things. And 
then the spiritual ear can hear the Master saying, 
" The publicans and the harlots go into the king- 
dom of God before you." 

These facts must be borne in mind by the 
Christian teacher ; and he must carefully refrain 
from applying any other test of religion than 
the filial spirit, or the desire and purpose to serve 
and please God by keeping his commandments. 
The grace of God does all the rest. And on this 
most holy faith of the gospel we are to build 
ourselves up into all obedience and spiritual 
growth through the assisting grace of the Holy 
Spirit. In this way the Christian life will unfold 
naturally and in accordance with the experience 
and peculiar type of the individual. Nothing be- 
ing demanded but the filial spirit, that spirit 



282 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

can manifest itself in various ways and be the 
same spirit in them all. By fixing our thought 
on the filial spirit, we shall run little risk of con- 
fusing ourselves with theological and metaphy- 
sical subtleties on the one hand, or with artificial 
and impossible experiences on the other. Chris- 
tian truth is manifold and meets the needs of all; 
but every phase of this truth does not appeal 
equally to all, nor even to the same at all times. 

Christianity has a religion for all ages and 
temperaments, and for all sorts and conditions 
of men. There is a bright and cheerful religion 
for childhood and youth, and a more sombre and 
deeper-toned religion for later years. It has matin 
bells for life's morning and vesper songs for the 
night. Work and prayer, contemplation and 
obedience, aspiration and communion, all mix and 
mingle in the complex experience of the Chris- 
tian community; but the one thing common to 
all, the one thing with which all may begin and 
which none may ever outgrow, is obedient loyalty 
to the spirit and commands of our Lord. Beyond 
this there is no common pattern of religious ex- 
perience ; and it is not desirable that there should 
be. The search for such a thing implies gross 
ignorance in pedagogy, in psychology, and in 
religion. 

The life of man is very complex, and our 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 283 

human needs are many. The feeling of depend- 
ence and helplessness growing out of the vicissi- 
tudes of life and the inexorable necessities which 
wall us in on every side^ the feeling of awe and fear 
springing out of the impenetrable mystery of our 
existence, the feeling of loneliness and orphanage 
also which sometimes comes over us in the deep 
silence of the universe, the heart wailing over 
and after its dead, the intellect seeking for know- 
ledge, and the conscience hungering and thirsting 
after righteousness, — all of these things enter 
into and determine the relio^ious manifestations of 
humanity. The Christian teacher will always have 
to minister to more than the conscience of men. He 
must bind up the broken-hearted, strengthen the 
feeble will, and bring a message of life and cheer 
and Inspiration. I would not then be understood 
as saying that conduct or righteousness is the 
sum of religion. But I do say it is the sum of 
God's demands upon us, the central thing in our 
relations to him. Given this, our religious life 
may unfold in various ways according to our 
special experience or peculiar temper, or the de- 
mands made upon us by our position in life; but 
without this all else is dust and ashes before 
conscience and before God. We are not children 
of the kingdom because we are filled with awe 
before the midnight heavens, or in some great 



284 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

cathedral, or at some magnificent religious ser- 
vice. We are not children of the kingdom be- 
cause we are thrilled or melted by religious 
music, or delight in devotional exercises, or are 
emotionally moved by religious contemplation. 
All of these things are possible without one spark 
of loyalty to God or love to men. We are chil- 
dren of the kingdom, if at all, because we are bent 
on doing the will of God. 

The teaching and practice of the individual- 
istic churches concerning the religion of child- 
hood have generally oscillated between two ex- 
tremes of error ; either children have been viewed 
as incapable of religion, or forms of experience 
have been demanded from them which are pos- 
sible only to mature life, and often only to aban- 
doned sinners. The words of Scripture were origi- 
nally addressed to grown men, and often to men 
who were just emerging from heathen darkness 
and all manner of filthy practices ; but they have 
been supposed to apply to all, heathen and Chris- 
tian, young and old alike ; and then the attempt 
has been made to force on the young the expe- 
rience of the mature, and to find in the young 
the depravity of abandoned sinners. Enormous 
pedagogical and psychological error has been 
common at this point. 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 285 

All the churches which emphasize personal re- 
ligion have been more or less guilty of this fault ; 
and they need to bring forth fruits meet for re- 
pentance. There is a large body of feelings, much 
affected by the artificially spiritual, which are not 
religious at all, but are simply expressions of ad- 
vancing age. Such are the sense of the brevity of 
life and of the unsatisfying nature of all earthly 
things. Feelings of this sort are unnatural to 
the young; and language of this sort from them 
can only be an echo, or an expression of artificial 
sentiment. There are many other feelings of a 
religious nature which are also impossible to the 
young. Such are a deep sense of sinfulness, of 
human weakness, of the depravity of human na- 
ture, of the imperfection of our righteousness, and 
of the constant need of divine grace and forbear- 
ance and forgiveness. Such insight is impossible 
to childhood, for it is born only of the deeper 
experiences of mature life and of the sterner con- 
flicts of faith. Yet we have not scrupled to 
gather up these feelings and convictions as pre- 
eminently marks of grace, and to look for them 
in the life of childhood. And sometimes the 
child repeats the phrases, to our great delight 
and edification. Or we see that the meaning is 
really beyond the child, and then we conclude 
that children are incapable of religion. 



286 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

Both of these errors are to be avoided. The 
religion of maturity is impossible to childhood, 
but the religion of childhood is religion neverthe- 
less. It is largely of the simple ethical type, not 
without its naive misconceptions and innocent 
misunderstandings ; but it may be very loyal for 
all that. A child's conscience may be very tender, 
and may even see more straight on matters level 
to the child's mind than the more sophisticated 
conscience of the mature. 

Again, we often misjudge the religion of child- 
hood by misinterpreting the transparency of 
childhood. The child has not learned self-control, 
reserve, dissimulation ; and whatever is in, comes 
out. The child finds the Sabbath irksome, and 
says so. The man finds it irksome, and says no- 
thing about it. The child finds the religious exer- 
cise distasteful, and would like to run out into 
the back yard and play. The man finds it distaste- 
ful, and retires into the back yard of worldly 
thoughts, which are quite as far from spirituality 
as the child's games, but which do not make such 
a show in the outward appearance. But to him 
who looketh at the heart the well-behaved and 
decorous worshiper is often farther from him than 
the restless and fretful child. Let any one who 
is incHned to judge the religion of childhood in 
this way ask himself how he would seem, if he 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 287 

should act out without disguise the passing feel- 
ings, the lawless fancies, the random disinclina- 
tions, the transient indifference to the best things, 
from which none of us are free. We can hardly 
expect the children to attain to a perfection of 
constancy and consistency which is beyond the 
mature; and we should not apply a rule to them 
which we could not endure ourselves. 

The insight that a child must be a child in re- 
ligion as well as in other things, and the further 
insight that every normal stage of life is legiti- 
mate in the divine plan, should help us to look 
with a kindlier eye on the child life and prevent 
any interference with its normal manifestations 
in the supposed interests of piety. The child life 
moves within a small circle of activities, desires, 
and aversions, mostly directed toward physical 
objects, and thus to many it seems not deep enough 
and spiritual enough for religion. One speaker at 
a recent gathering of ministers said he did not 
wish his children to profess religion until they 
had outgrown the inconstancy and frivolity of 
childhood. A minister of my acquaintance was 
received into the Church when a child, and next 
day was seen playing ball with some other chil- 
dren. This was a sore offense to a good brother, 
who saw in the fact a proof that children are in- 
capable of true heart religion. How could a boy 



288 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

play ball with any zest if he had any religion ? 
Yet the probability is that the boy, in playing 
ball, was doing the very best thing for himself, 
religion, and all. Another ministerial acquaint- 
ance secured a ticket to the Y. M. C. A. gymna- 
sium for a lad who was spending much time on 
the streets and was in danger from idleness ; but 
his father forbade him to accept it, as he heard 
they played checkers and bowls there, and he 
'Vould as soon think of sending his son to a sa- 
loon to learn Christianity." When the minister 
said that he played himself sometimes, the poor, 
ignorant Pharisee replied that he could only think 
of Christ's words : "Ye compass sea and land to 
make one proselyte; and when he is made, ye 
make him twofold more the child of hell than 
yourselves." This was supposed to show exceed- 
ing spirituality. 

Christian truth, we have already said, is mani- 
fold, and meets the needs of all; but the needs 
vary with age, experience, temperament, mental 
type, etc., and the religious life will vary to cor- 
respond. This must be borne in mind in dealing 
with the religion of the young. It is one of God's 
great mercies that those who have the earthly 
life before them are generally pleased with it. 
Hence, to the young, it is a glad thing to live, 
and we ought not to wish it otherwise. Without 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 289 

this naive optimism of youth, life would hardlj 
be possible ; and nothing could well be more false 
to Christian truth and the Christian spirit than 
interference therewith in the supposed interests 
of piety. We must not, then, call upon the young 
to have mournful and despondent feelings about 
the life that now is, and a desire to depart and 
be with Christ, in the fancy that thereby they 
become more truly religious. We must rather re- 
mind them that this earth also is one of the many 
mansions in the Father's house, and seek to help 
them to relate this life to God's will. The child's 
optimism is really nearer the truth than the old 
man's pessimism; for it is God's world after all, 
and it is right that we should rejoice in it and be 
glad; and instead of rebuking the children for 
their simple joy in life, we should rather rebuke 
the pessimism of maturity as rooting in a lack of 
faith. 

Let, then, the children take their vows with a 
glad heart; and when life wears on, and experi- 
ence deepens, and the overturnings come, they 
will learn of themselves that this earth is not our 
rest, and will appreciate the life and immortality 
brought to light in the gospel. They will also 
learn the blessedness of the corresponding fact 
that we are saved by grace. Any true apprecia- 
tion of these things comes only through life. 



290 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

The formulas may be learned from a catechism, 
but their meaning comes from experience; and, 
coming in this way, it is unforced and natural. 
It is not a sign of grace, which is anxiously to 
be sought for in all Christians, but an insight 
which is developed only in the maturer Christian 
life. And the lacking insight, or the lesser mea- 
sure of insight, points only to a less advanced 
religious development, and not to being an alien 
or stranger in the household of faith. 

The churches have no more important duty 
at present than to make wise provision for the 
religious training of childhood. Statistics show 
that the great majority of church members come 
from the Sunday school. One of our leading in- 
dividualist churches reports that ninety per cent 
of its additions come from this source. While, 
then, we should not relax any wise evangehstic 
effort of the revival type, it is manifest that 
Christian nurture and training are to be the 
great reliance of the Church in the future, and 
that we must aim to colonize the world through 
the Christian family and home, rather than to 
reclaim the world by the conversion of mature 
sinners. Of course we must do what we can with 
the old sinner, but this method alone is as hope- 
less as the plan to save society from drunkenness 
by reforming drunkards, rather than by pre- 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 291 

venting the making of drunkards. Prophylactic 
measures are the reliance of all modern thought, 
both in medicine and in morals. There is a de- 
mand here for more psychological insight and 
better pedagogical methods than we have had in 
the past. Throughout the early years the Church 
and the family are responsible for the religious 
life of the child, and they should avail them- 
selves of all the means of influence at their 
command to prepare the way for and build up 
this life. An atmosphere of home piety, the for- 
mation and cultivation of religious habits of 
thought and action, wise religious instruction, 
all reenforced and illustrated by living example, 
would go so far to turn the young life toward 
God and righteousness that, when reflective con- 
sciousness should come, and the soul should 
decide its direction for itself, it would have 
nothing to do but to ratify what had already 
been done, and go on without break or jar into 
the fullness of spiritual life. 

And even with the mature we need to criticise 
and reform our methods. The growth of intelli- 
gence, the spread of good taste, a more independ- 
ent and critical way of thinking, have made 
many traditional methods distasteful or ineffec- 
tive. This is especially the case with revival 
methods, many of which, moreover, rest upon an 



292 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

outgrown theology, and all of which need to be 
revised in the interest of both good sense and 
reHgion. The indications are that hereafter the 
churches will have to rely mainly on religious 
training for children, as just said, and "hand- 
picking" for the mature. In any case, we must 
remember that there is nothing sacred in meth- 
ods ; that the present value of a method depends 
on its adaptation to present circumstances ; and 
that the most effective method is the best. 

And now we must have a final word with the 
traditionalist who confuses theology with experi- 
ence. He will certainly miss, in the previous 
exposition, a deal to which he has been accus- 
tomed. He is not content to find in conversion 
simply a turning to God in trust and obedience 
according to the commands and promises of 
Christ, but discerns in it mysterious forensic 
relations to the divine justice, and also deep 
metaphysical changes in the soul itself. The 
former element is necessary in order to meet the 
supposed demands of justice ; and the latter ele- 
ment is peculiarly necessary for distinguishing 
the work of grace from mere natural goodness. 
Such goodness, not being of faith, is of course 
of sin ; and there is needed some sure standard 
whereby these counterfeits of grace may be 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 293 

detected. Such a standard is at least formally 
furnished by the view in question. Judged by 
character and conduct, it is not easy to mark off 
men into two sharply distinct classes ; but if we 
may suppose some hidden forensic or metaphysi- 
cal change or event, then the distinction is easy. 
The converted are those in whom this change has 
taken place. All others are unconverted, and their 
righteousness, however fair in seeming, is filthy 
rags. But as thus conceived, the operation is as 
mechanical as baptismal regeneration itself. It is 
taken entirely out of the intelligible ethical realm, 
and is with difficulty saved from vanishing into 
abstract hocus-pocus. 

We escape this confusion by again reminding 
ourselves that salvation on the human side must 
essentially consist in the production of the filial 
spirit, and that forensic difficulties, if not fictions 
of abstract theology, are something with which 
we have no practical concern. Whatever hidden 
difficulties in the divine nature or government 
there may be respecting the forgiveness of sins, 
our faith is that they have all been met, so that 
our sole duty is to proclaim the forgiveness of 
sins, to call the prodigals home to the Father's 
house, and to bring up the children to be the 
sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. All 
beyond this is theology, and is of no practical 



294 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

moment. The great danger to which men are 
exposed consists in unlikeness to God in sym- 
pathy and purpose. If this unlikeness can be 
removed, everything else will take care of itself. 
Remembering the form of human development 
and the universality of the provisions of the 
gospel, we must say that every one is in the 
divine family who does not insist on taking him- 
self out. And our effort must be directed to 
bringing men to recognize their duties, relations, 
and privileges as members of the family. 

But the person who thinks mechanically will 
continue to ask, Who, then, are the saved ? This 
question is best answered by asking another, Who 
are the unsaved ? To this we can give an answer. 
The unsaved are all those who are living in un- 
righteousness and unfilial rejection of the law 
and grace of God. These are the prodigal sons 
who must return to their Father or reap the 
fruit of their doings. All others are saved in this 
sense, that they are comprehended in an order of 
divine grace which is working toward their de- 
velopment into the consciousness and acceptance 
of their place in God's family. But the develop- 
ment is nowhere complete. It stretches all the 
way from the unconsciousness of childhood to 
the still imperfect apprehension and devotion of 
the mature saint. But all alike stand in the divine 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 296 

grace ; and the divine love is bearing them on. 
And our task consists in co-working with this love, 
that the will of God may be seen and done by 
us, and on the earth, as it is seen and done in 
heaven. Beyond this judgment is not ours. Our 
sole hope is in the mercy and goodness of God. 

Not long ago a minister of considerable stand- 
ing in one of our churches introduced his sermon 
by emphasizing the importance of knowing the 
date and place of one's birth ; and then went on 
to argue the greater importance of knowing the 
date and place of one's second birth, in complete 
ignorance apparently that the only really impor- 
tant question in either case is. Is the man now 
alive ? In the development of religious thought 
this question is fast displacing all others; and 
the answer to it is found solely in the quality 
and direction of the life. Obedience and the re- 
sulting fruits of the Spirit are the only test of 
spiritual life. All else may be imitated, and is 
imitated. The study of religious psychology has 
shown the unreliability of all other tests. We no 
longer take any man's word as to his spiritual 
state on the basis of remarkable experiences. We 
discount them all ; we distrust them all, unless 
accompanied by the appropriate fruit. We are no 
longer concerned about experiences, but only to 



296 STUDIES IN CHmSTIANITY 

live in the spirit o£ the kingdom and to be about 
our Father's business. With growing insight into 
the divineness of the natural, we are no longer 
anxious about signs and wonders, but find God 
also in the routine of life faithfully borne, and in 
intellect and conscience as well. We recognize 
the order of life as a divinely appointed discipline 
for our spiritual development ; and we never ex- 
pect anything from God that will excuse us from 
doing our best, or relieve us from the discipline 
of life. Not a little of supposedly religious desire 
is a desire for religious ease and luxury rather 
than a desire for greater likeness to God and 
greater spiritual efficiency in the work of the 
world. But neither prayer, nor faith, nor any 
other religious exercise whatever may be offered 
in place of our own effort. There are no short 
cuts to perfection even in the spiritual field. The 
foundations of character must be laid, not without 
our own effort, in the humble virtues of faithful- 
ness, integrity, patience, industry ; and until these 
are learned the higher spiritual attainments would 
be out of place and impossible. Nothing but 
religious caricature can result when the higher 
graces or the " comforts " of religion are sought 
apart from faithfulness in elementary duties. Any 
real communion with God must take place through 
the moral nature and through spiritual likeness to 



THE CHRISTIAN LIFE 297 

him. And any mysticism that is not to lose itself 
in barren, if not immoral, subjectivities must be 
resolutely subjected to this requirement. Yet 
though we walk by faith and not by sight God is 
always with us. We must indeed work out our 
own salvation, or we should be pauperized by our 
religion ; still it is God who worketh in us to 
will and to work of his good pleasure. And he 
does not leave himself without a witness in the 
soul. We have indeed to plod along the dusty 
road of daily routine, yet not without a growing 
sense that we are not alone, and that the Spirit 
of Christ is with us in the way. 



IV 

THE MODERN CONCEPTION OF THE 
KINGDOM OF GOD 



IV 



THE MODERN CONCEPTION OF THE 
KINGDOM OF GOD 

The subject as given implies that the religious 
thought of to-day has advanced beyond that o£ 
the past in its conception of the kingdom. This 
agrees with the teaching of our Lord himself, 
and also with the facts of history. The kingdom 
is a growth, both in our understanding of it and 
in its realization. Our Lord spoke of it as a 
leaven, which was gradually to leaven the lump. 
Again, he described it as a seed, which should 
grow up, first the blade, then the ear, and after 
that the full corn in the ear. And he even spoke 
of our knowledge of it as something to be slowly 
gained under the tuition of the Holy Spirit, 
whom he would send to guide his disciples into 
the truth. He brought the leaven, he planted the 
seed, he spoke the word ; but the evolution and 
the understanding were committed to the ages. 

Probably we should all accept this statement 
for the realization of the kingdom, but still we 
might think that the knowledge of the kingdom 
was possessed from the start in the revelation of 



302 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

the Bible. This fancy, however, is quickly dis- 
pelled by a moment's reflection. In some sense 
we have had Christian truth always before us in 
the Scriptures, but in another sense we are only 
slowly entering into the meaning, for a revelation 
is not made until it is understood. If we should 
send a book on algebra to the king of Dahomey, 
we could hardly say that a revelation of the 
higher mathematics had been made to the savage 
chief; because such a revelation implies not 
merely the possession of an outward and visible 
sign, but also an inward intellectual compre- 
hension. In the same way the revelation of God 
has been conditioned by the mental and moral 
development of the religious community. Any 
revelation, even of the purest truth, is sure to be 
warped by those who receive it into some image 
of themselves, and thus their narrowness and 
blindness reappear in their interpretations, and 
only slowly does the essential truth, through the 
illumination of the spirit, finally free itself from 
these distorting media and appear in its true 
nature. 

These considerations prepare us to understand 
the slow progress of the kingdom. We have 
slowly come into the spirit of Christ even as a 
disposition, and still more slowly into the under- 
standing of God's purpose for man. One of the 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 303 

early disciples, when our Lord was still with them, 
proposed to call down fire from heaven and con- 
sume the inhabitants of a Samaritan village who 
had not, as he conceived, properly received them. 
Our Lord rebuked him with the words, " Ye 
know not what manner of spirit ye are of." And 
ever since, conceit and vanity and malignity have 
thought themselves to be of the spirit of God and 
have wreaked no end of mischief upon the world, 
when all the time they knew not what spirit they 
were of. St. Bernard favored the Inquisition. 
Francis de Sales, so very highly spoken of as a 
saint and much admired to this day by persons 
who make a specialty of piety, indulged in one 
of the most inhuman of persecutions. A few 
hundred years ago all manner of persecution was 
the rule in the Christian Church. In the time 
of Shakespeare six hundred unfortunate women 
were hanged or burned as witches in consequence 
of one wind-storm in England. Bodin, one of the 
greatest legal lights of France, was vehement in 
his denunciation of witchcraft, and Sir Matthew 
Hale pronounced sentence of death on witches. 
It is little more than two hundred years since the 
Salem witchcraft left indelible infamy upon our 
New England history. These things were the 
outcome to a large extent of ignorance, — igno- 
rance of natural science and ignorance of the 



304 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

order of natural law and ignorance of the laws 
of disease ; but they were by no means always 
free from a considerable smack of malignity. 

But even in cases where such ignorance was not 
in question, men showed themselves equally slow 
in apprehending the truth of the gospel. Thus 
we have been repeating for nearly two thousand 
years that God is a spirit, and they that worship 
him must worship him in spirit and in truth ; 
and yet it would not be hard to find multitudes 
of people, and even many denominations, who 
regard God as a stickler for etiquette, so that 
some external rite or ceremony is a necessary 
condition of salvation, or so that only certain 
persons can perform the rite or the ceremony. 
Again, we have been praying for a long time 
^^ Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them 
that trespass against us " ; but how seldom we 
think of the tremendous impHcations of such a 
petition. Or, " Inasmuch as ye did it, or did it 
not, unto one of the least of these, my brethren, 
ye did it, or did it not, unto me." Yet in the 
face of this the Christian world has been full 
of indifEerence and hardness of heart ; and the 
claims of humanity, its crying needs, its sub- 
merged members, the unjust and destructive 
conditions under which so many live and die, 
have had historically exceedingly little attention ; 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD^S KINGDOM 305 

and it is only recently that anything that could 
be called enthusiasm for humanity has appeared 
even in the Church itself. And all this in the 
face of those tremendous words, " Ye did it not 
to me." 

Similarly, with the Master's doctrine of stew- 
ardship, how slow the Christian world has been 
to receive it, and how much slower to put it into 
practice. This doctrine does not indeed condemn 
the simple possession of wealth, — such a view 
would be fatal to civilization ; but it condemns 
its misuse, its waste on vanity and folly, on all 
those things that contribute nothing to human 
comfort or advancement, instead of using it so 
that it shall bless both its owner and the com- 
munity. On this point the Master was exceed- 
ingly uncompromising, but his teaching has not 
found wide recognition among his disciples. And 
the dream which lies at the heart of Christianity, 
of a great brotherhood for prayer and labor and 
mutual help, is all too much ignored, or rather 
unheard of. The Christian doctrine of steward- 
ship has never come into the thought of the great 
majority of disciples. 

If then we should ask. Is the Christian Church 
Christian? the answer must certainly be. The 
Church is becoming Christian, but in any ideal 
sense it is not Christian yet. As in the old dis- 



306 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

pensation God had to wink at many things be- 
cause of the hardness of men's hearts, so equally 
under the new dispensation he has to wink at a 
great many things because of the hardness and 
dullness of men's hearts. The truth is in the 
Church as a leaven which is slowly leavening the 
lump. It is in the Church as principles which are 
slowly being understood and applied. It is in the 
Church as a spirit which is slowly leading men 
out into the light. Only in this sense is the Church 
Christian even yet. Verily our God is the " God 
of all patience." 

Now these things do not imply that these im- 
perfect saints are hypocrites. They only serve to 
show how slowly we come to understand the 
meaning of the truths respecting the kingdom 
of God. They have been announced for centuries 
from our pulpits, and have been repeated in prayer 
and liturgy ; but we have lost ourselves in the 
letter that killeth, and have missed the spirit that 
alone profit eth anything. Thus we see the truth 
of the figure that the kingdom is a leaven, a 
slowly growing seed, and that the truth is only 
slowly apprehended through the working of the 
Spirit in the mind and heart of the religious 
community. 

Thus far on the slow growth of the kingdom ; 
but now let us inquire what the kingdom itself 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 307 

means. I£ the kingdom of God should come on 
earth, what would the fact be ? In our earthiness 
of thought and lack of spiritual insight we might 
easily fancy that some concrete manifestation 
would be made to the senses. The New Jerusalem 
might descend out of heaven, with its walls of 
precious stones, its pavements of gold, and its 
gates of pearl. There would be something that 
we could see, and the light would shine afar off, 
and the nations would gather to behold the sight, 
and thus the kingdom of God would be among 
men. Probably some such notion as this would 
be the thought of most men. But a moment's re- 
flection convinces us that this would be only a 
celestial show, with no more spiritual significance 
than a splendid circus. There would be nothing 
moral or moralizing in such a performance. But 
the Lord looketh at the heart, and the kingdom 
of God can come with meaning only in the heart. 
The true kingdom of God is within. It is a mode 
of living and thinking, not an external show. 
Hence the coming of the kingdom could only 
mean the subordination of our hearts and wills 
to the will of God. It would not appear in the 
heavens above nor in the earth beneath. It would 
not come with sense observation at any time. It 
would appear first of all in the surrendered and 
obedient will. Men would be loving God with all 



308 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

their hearts and their neighbors as themselves. 
This would be the essential thing, the doing of 
God's will on earth as it is done in heaven. 

This describes the essential principle of the 
kingdom. The kingdom comes in the individual 
when his will is set to do the will of God. It 
comes in the community in proportion as the 
members of the community are bent on doing 
the will of God. And this also defines the sub- 
jects of the kingdom. They are those who are on 
the side of righteousness and who are seeking to 
know and do the will of God. Whatever others 
may be, they are not in the present sense chil- 
dren of the kingdom. 

Now we might think that this would be all, 
and indeed it would be very much. If men were 
loving God with all their hearts and their neigh- 
bors as themselves, we should be far on the way 
toward the coming of his kingdom. A great 
many evils would disappear at once. All the evils 
that spring from selfishness and crime and ani- 
malism would disappear. Likewise, all those that 
spring from harshness and bitterness of thought, 
from envy and superciHousness and evil speaking 
and evil thinking would disappear. And yet this 
in itself would not be the full thought of the 
kingdom of God. It would indeed be its essential 
principle and vital germ, but still it would only 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 309 

be part of the matter, for we need next to know 
what God's will is. We must not only have a 
right attitude of will toward God, but we must 
have some knowledge respecting him and his 
purpose concerning man. And without the latter 
we might well wander in error and superstition, 
which would prevent the full manifestation and 
realization of the kingdom. Thus this right prin- 
ciple might conceivably exist in a community of 
Lazaruses and paupers, or people lost in ignorance 
and superstition, and in that case no one would 
say that this represented God's will for men or 
that his kingdom had fully come. The Coptic or 
Abyssinian church may possibly be as devoted 
as any of the western churches, but the lack of 
knowledge or of moral and intellectual develop- 
ment keeps them on a level with the grossest 
superstition. In the Middle Ages, when men had 
no knowledge of natural law, if a pestilence broke 
out they had no recourse but the performance of 
some rite, superstitious or religious, commonly 
both ; and meanwhile the pestilence raged and 
devastated the community. In such cases also it 
is plain that the kingdom had not fully come, 
and that it could not come until the religious will 
had been supplemented by the appropriate know- 
ledge. 

The kingdom, then, may be hindered by two 



310 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

things : first, the evil will, which is the great root 
of human trouble; and second, by the ignorance 
of God's will, the failure to understand him, to 
enter into his spirit, to know what he is and what 
he means for men. The evil will, then, and the 
ignorant will, are the great enemies of the king- 
dom of God, and not until they are both removed 
can that which is perfect come. 

Let us say, then, that the coming of the king- 
dom would involve not only the exorcism of the 
evil will and its replacement by the surrendered 
and obedient will, but also the removal of the 
multitudinous misunderstandings and ignorances 
which prevent us from appreciating and posi- 
tively realizing God's purpose for man. From this 
point of view the coming of the kingdom would 
consist in the multitudinous renovations of life 
and society which the wise good will should ac- 
complish. It would not consist in any other-world- 
liness or ascetic piety, but in the subordination of 
the orreat normal human life with all its interests 
to the will of God, and the development of that 
life, individually and socially, into its highest and 
noblest form, so that the good will within may 
find perfect expression without, in the human 
unfolding and social order which are the divine 
purpose for men. 

Thus we see that the kingdom of God in the 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 311 

concrete has a material, intellectual, and social basis 
as well as a formally religious one ; and both are 
equally necessary. In God 's plan both alike are in- 
cluded, and neither can dispense with the other. 
The Church must work for the coming of the 
kingdom, but so must the school, science, inven- 
tion, and all the rest. It is plain, then, that in the 
coming of the kingdom of God two factors are 
involved: first, the exorcism of the evil will and 
its replacement by the sanctified will ; and second, 
the development of life in all its possibilities and 
powers as representing God's will concerning us. 
It involves, then, not only the exorcism of the 
evil will, but also the exorcism of ignorance, of 
superstition, of disease, of bondage to physical 
needs, of the thousand things which hinder full 
and perfect life. Hence it involves also the de- 
velopment of the individual in all his powers, 
and the development of social relations into their 
perfect form, for man comes to himself only in 
society; and without a developed social order, 
which makes possible and conserves the gains of 
the individual, man would never emerge from the 
savage state. Thus we are introduced to the 
whole fabric of the social order, and to the entire 
mechanism of life, as the conditions of man at- 
taining to himself and thus fulfilling his destiny. 
Not simply to mean well, but to work for the 



312 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

realization of ideal life, is our duty, and what- 
ever that realization evolves is to be looked upon 
as also God's will. 

The view thus set forth is comparatively a re- 
cent growth in popular religious thought. Here 
and there, indeed, prophets and saints have dis- 
cerned it, but in the main religious thought has 
not attained to it. This it shares to some extent 
with ethical doctrine itself. Ethics has largely 
been one-sided and abstract, and has failed to 
connect with the great concrete life of the real 
human world. It has dealt with intentions and 
principles and categorical imperatives and the 
absolute value of the good will. Well, these are 
all important in their place, but at best they are 
only half the matter. The good will must will 
something in order to exist at all; the abstract 
good will that wills nothing is itself nothing. In 
order to give the good will any contents, or any 
worthy task, we must bring it out of its abstrac- 
tion and connect it with life and all our normal 
human interests. 

Let us put the matter in another form. It takes 
a vast amount of work to keep the world agoing. 
Think of the work in the millions of homes, the 
work of the farm, the school, the government, 
the organization of industrial production, of trans- 
portation, of the transmission of news and ideas, 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 313 

etc. These things are the foundation of civiliza- 
tion, and without them man could lead only the 
narrowest and most miserable existence. Now 
what is the relation of morals and religion to this 
world of life ? If they ignore it they themselves 
become unimportant abstractions and should 
themselves be ignored. The true relation is this : 
Life represents the field for moral and religious 
action ; and morals and religion are to move out 
into life and possess it, and develop it into its 
ideal form. All of this work in its great outlines 
must go on, if civilization is to endure; but it 
should go on under the guidance and stimulus of 
morals and religion. This life is to be moralized 
and rationalized ; it is to be made the expression 
of right reason and good will. This is the posi- 
tive moral task of humanity. We are not simply 
to mean well, but we are to develop our human 
life into its ideal form, and to Hve the human life 
in a wise and worthy way. 

The positive aim of action, then, is to be found 
in the realization of life itself, full and perfect 
life ; and the field is the world with all its activi- 
ties. Both morals and religion are to be valued 
only as attempts to realize this aim. As such they 
presuppose life, with all its possibilities, as some- 
thing already provided for in our constitution, 
and needing only to be realized by us in their 



314 STUDIES IN CHRISTIAmXY 

highest and noblest form ; and for this realization 
of humanity physical and mental training is to 
be undertaken, schools founded, knowledge in- 
creased, the social order improved and perfected, 
inventions made, commerce extended, physical 
nature subdued, art encouraged, and whatsoever 
else there may be that enlarges and enriches life. 
The moral spirit, then, has all fields for its own. 
Here is where asceticism and monasticism have 
made their fearful blunders. They have rightly 
enough fixed their attention on the holy will as 
the centre of character ; but they have mistakenly 
sought to cultivate it apart from the natural ob- 
jects for its exercise set for it in our constitution. 
They have cultivated an other-worldliness, which 
has sometimes made sad work of this. The result 
has been as unsaintly as it is unlovely and un- 
happy. And this might have been foreseen, for 
such a notion was implicitly an imputation upon 
the wisdom and goodness of God, who is the 
author of our constitution and of the general 
order of life. But the enlightened Christian re- 
cognizes that life is the field for our moral and 
religious activity. He sees that all things must 
work together to the building up of humanity. 
Wealth, leisure, learning, culture, taste, art, and 
a permanent subjection of physical forces are 
needed to build man into his best estate. Hence 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 315 

instead of denouncing them, with the ascetic, he 
seeks to bring them under moral control. They 
are the sources of temptation, to be sure, but to 
be without them in some measure is to be savages. 
The conditions, even of an ideal earthly life, exist 
as yet only to a very limited extent. The race 
must produce vastly more, and accumulate more, 
and acquire leisure for development in the upper 
ranges of existence, and subjugate nature also 
to human service, so that the drudgery of the 
race shall be done by cosmic forces. All this 
must come to pass before the kingdom of man 
can come upon the earth. And hence the wise 
Christian welcomes all these things. He looks 
upon each new discovery, each new invention, 
each conquest over nature, each subjugation of 
physical forces, each unloading of human drudg- 
ery upon muscles of steel, each extension of 
commerce, each advance of knowledge, each in- 
creased facility for living, as a veritable Baptist 
messenger before the face of humanity, declar- 
ing that the kingdom of man is at hand. To war 
against these things is to war against civilization 
and to be an emeny of the human race. In and 
through these things the Christian spirit man- 
ifests and realizes itself, as it labors for the 
upbuilding and perfecting of men. 

And that this is so will appear at once if we 



316 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

ask ourselves what we conceive to constitute an 
ideal human life. That would not be an ideal life, 
however well meaning or devout or consecrated 
the person might be, which involved disease, 
ignorance, narrowness, superstition, or the lack 
or atrophy of any of our powers. A mind which 
could not interest itself in truth or duty, which 
found the pursuit of knowledge tiresome, and 
had no high aspirations, such a mind could never 
be considered as other than atrophied or a case 
of arrested development. In God's dealing with 
such persons we can well believe in his pity, but 
we cannot believe that they represent his ideal 
of humanity. And if we should believe that such 
persons are always to remain in that condition, 
never emerging into the large and abundant life 
of knowledge, and the enjoyment of beauty, etc., 
it would be for us an unrelieved horror. 

Thus it is plain that the great natural forms of 
life are the conditions of a large human life, and 
are included, therefore, in the divine plan for men. 
Least of all are they to be viewed as sinful or as the 
outcome of sin in any way. They are founded in 
our constitution and our relations to things, and will 
be necessary so long as this constitution remains, 
even if the millennium should come. If the mil- 
lennium came to-morrow, the work of the world 
would have to go on just the same. All that would 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 317 

be eliminated would be the evil will and the results 
which flow from it. Education, trade, transpor- 
tation, farming, mining, the manifold productive 
industries of the world, the administration of 
government, all would go on or civilization would 
perish. These are absolutely necessary conditions 
of any large human life, as we are at present con- 
stituted, and man could not be man without them. 
Not less trade is needed, but more conscience in 
the traders; not less production, but a finer spirit 
in both producers and consumers. We need not 
less knowledge or wealth or taste, but far more 
of all — but all of them used for the enlargement 
and upbuilding of men. God's will concerning 
us involves activity in all these lines, an activity 
beyond anything yet attained, but it also involves 
the subordination of all these activities to the 
spirit of love and righteousness ; and the Chris- 
tian spirit, instead of withdrawing from this life, 
is to move out into it and possess it, into the great 
institutions of humanity, the family, the school, 
the state, and build them into harmony with the 
will of God. Then the kingdom of God and the 
kingdom of man, which are essentially the same, 
will come. 

Religion, we have said, was misled in this mat- 
ter by the abstractions of theoretical ethics. Both 
fixed their attention on the holy will as the centre 



318 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of the moral life. In this they were right ; and it 
cannot be said that they over-emphasized the holy 
will, but rather that they under-emphasized the 
natural order of life as the great field of moral 
activity, and thus left the moral life without any 
proper object and field. In addition to this source 
of error, religion was further misled by misconcep- 
tions of its own. Salvation itself has largely been 
conceived in a selfish way as a means of escaping 
external danger; there was comparatively little 
desire after God, or after spiritual life, and equally 
little generous and magnanimous desire to work 
for and with God. Our native selfishness has won 
some of its greatest triumphs and made its most 
odious manifestations in its conception of salvation. 
A mistaken theology also helped to increase the 
delusion. The world was supposed to be hopelessly 
bankrupt, and nothing good could be made out 
of it. It was mortgaged to the devil, and he had 
foreclosed. The Church, on the other hand, was a 
kind of life-raft to save a few here and there from 
a sinking wreck, but there was little thought that 
this earth should be made one of the many man- 
sions in the Father's house. Such a view was ex- 
cusable at a time when the ancient civilization was 
decaying and the end of the world was supposed 
to be near, but it became pernicious as history 
wore on, and the end of the world was indefi- 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 319 

nitely postponed. It gave rise to the disastrous dis- 
tinction between the reHgious and the secular, 
which has so fatally led men astray. Some things 
were supposed to belong to religion and some 
other things to the world, and religious duties 
could all be performed in a religious field, while 
secular duties owed little or no allegiance to God. 
In the Middle Ages this notion led to asceticism 
and monasticism, and we are by no means clear 
of it yet. Religion is still largely conceived as a 
specialty or as a detached movement, which has 
no gearing with life as a whole. It tends to with- 
draw itself from the secular, which it calls pro- 
fane, and to carry on a set of formal rites or 
services in a vacuum, from which all every-day 
interests have been excluded. Hence it is no un- 
common thing to find in religious circles an in- 
difference to social and civic duties, on the ground 
of their unspirituality. And the tacit assumption 
is very general that the higher and finer virtues 
of character flourish only in holy retirement 
from life and its clamorous interests. In many 
circles wealth, intellect, culture, taste are dispar- 
aged, especially by those who lack them, as hos- 
tile to spiritual growth; and the very distinction 
of the religious from the secular illustrates or 
expresses the aberration of religious thought on 
this subject. Even now the most useful citizens 



320 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

are not always church members. The men most 
concerned for civic and social righteousness, the 
men most concerned at social injustice and most 
filled with the enthusiam for humanity are by no 
means always in the churches — an instructive 
illustration of the danger of this distinction. For 
one who beHeves that this is God's world, it is 
nothing less than blasphemy to hold such a view. 
To hold that the study of God's world or of hu- 
man society is to turn from God, or to hold that 
the normal relations of life are defiling, is of the 
same sort. 

Now we escape these errors as soon as we 
recognize that this is God's world, and that the 
great normal forms and interests of life represent 
his will and purpose. To think otherwise is to 
assume that God did not know what he was do- 
ing when he made man and fitted up our earthly 
home for the field of our development. The field 
is the world ; and this life is the means by which 
he develops us, or the raw material which we are 
to build to its ideal form. The deepest thought 
of Christianity and the deepest aim are not sal- 
vation, but life, large, full, and abundant, lived, 
however, in the filial spirit. This is the deepest 
and essential thing. The forgiveness of sins is 
essential, but it is only introductory. The forms 
of worship and practices of piety are important, 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 321 

but they are only instrumental. They are not the 
thing, and their significance consists entirely in 
what they help us to. The central thing is the 
recognition of the divine will in all life and the 
loyal purpose to make that will prevail in life ; 
first of all in the hidden life of the spirit, and 
then in family life, in social life, in political life, 
in trade, in art, in literature, in every field of 
human interest and activity. Religion must be 
brought out of its abstraction by being brought 
into relation to every aspect of life. Its concern 
miust be not to make men abstractly good or 
pious, but to make them concretely good in the 
complex relations and duties of actual life. The 
religious spirit must, indeed, have all fields for 
its own ; at the same time we must remember 
that all that is normal to man has its place and 
justification in the divine purpose, and would 
appear in the realized kingdom of God upon 
earth. 

The growing recognition of this fact is one of 
the good signs of the times. We are not very 
much concerned to-day about an abstract sal- 
vation, but we are concerned for a concrete 
salvation, which shall bring man into loving 
relations to God and which shall make human 
conditions and surroundings and all social forms 
an expression of righteousness and good-will. It 



322 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

is no longer the desire of man to rescue an occa- 
sional sinner here and there from a perishing 
world, but it is rather to lift that world itself 
into its ideal conditions. We seek to save the 
community, to make the social order just, to put 
away needless inequalities, to remove the obsta- 
cles to the development of humanity, to give 
every one a chance. We aim to set the earth to 
rights ; we pray that God's kingdom may come, 
and we believe that this prayer commits us to the 
attitude of trying to make it come, by doing our 
best. We do not believe that this world is a sink- 
ing ship or an insolvent concern. We rather 
believe that God is in it, and will be in it until it 
shall be so transformed that we might properly 
speak of a new heaven and a new earth. We are 
not very much concerned, either, about abstract 
sin, but we are concerned about the concrete fact 
that there are people unwilling to do right and 
willing to do wrong, and we know that this fact 
is the great source of our sorrows and woes, and 
must be removed before the perfect can come. 
We beheve that this earth may be made vastly 
better than it is, and this fact constitutes our 
obligation to make it better, and so we seek to 
work together with God to bring in the better 
day. The human world is nothing ready-made 
by God apart from our activity. We must work 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 323 

together with him. He gives us the possibiHty and 
leaves us to realize it, and when we set to work 
in this spirit we shall find that the kingdom will 
be well on its way. When the kingdom of God 
has fully come, there will be no grinding poverty, 
no guilty ignorance, no disease resulting from 
folly and sin, but there will be peace and bless- 
ing and fellowship and helpfulness everywhere. 

From our point of view we further see that the 
Church is not the only institution of humanity or 
the only instrument through which God is work- 
ing. It is but one instrument, and by no means 
the most important. The family, the state, the 
school, the great ordinance of labor, are also 
necessary. All of these institutions are of God's 
appointment, and through them God is working 
out his will concerning man. Each of these has a 
function which the Church cannot perform. And 
in comparison with any of these the Church, as 
the organization which concerns itself with re- 
ligious worship, rites, and ordinances, is relatively 
insignificant. None of these institutions is perfect 
until it is possessed and pervaded by the Christian 
spirit, but that spirit in turn misses its own prin- 
cipal aim until it sees that the field is the world. 
And by world we mean such things as govern- 
ment, national and municipal, the great indus- 
tries of society, the great professions, the courts 



324 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of justice, the fine arts, the hospitals, the schools, 
the work of physical science and its application 
to life, the domestic economy of our homes, the 
daily work of all toilers, in short this great com- 
plex of secular activity which maintains the 
world from day to day and keeps society going. 
This is the field into which morals and religion 
are to move and control. Here they are to find 
their field ; and any institution, church or other- 
wise, that stands apart from this and condemns 
it as irreligious, or as having no significance for 
religion, is itself to be condemned as an enemy 
of God and man. 

There is another factor in present thought 
which also makes for this view, and that is the 
immanence of God, or the view which regards 
God as present in all things, as the great admin- 
istrator of the world, as being its continual source 
on whom all things forever depend and from 
whom they all proceed. Our occidental religion 
generally for many generations has been of a 
crude deistic type, with the conception of a self- 
running world and an absentee God. Nature was 
supposed to be made by God and set going in a 
kind of general way, so that the great mass of 
events represented no divine purpose but only a 
sort of by-product of the cosmic machine. The 
result was that God was perpetually on the point 



MODERN CONCEPTION OF GOD'S KINGDOM 325 

of vanishing, except as he showed his person by 
an occasional miracle now and then, just to let 
us know that he still lived. By consequence the 
presence of God was thought to be revealed 
only in strange and marvelous happenings, while 
the ordinary movement of life, the intuitions of 
conscience, the revelations of reason, the pro- 
ducts of education and training, were thought 
to have no divine character whatever. Now this 
is passing away, and we are coming to take in 
strict literalness the words of Paul that in him 
we live and move and have our being, for he is 
not far from any one of us. By consequence we 
are finding God in the orderly movements of 
the world, in the administration of the laws he 
has made, in the purpose he has indicated, in the 
results of education and of all that can be wrought 
out through the use and application of the laws 
of things. Thus he works with us and through us 
to will and to do of his good pleasure, and thus 
the cosmic mechanism that for a long time was 
such a terror to many is becoming transformed 
with the divine presence and expresses a divine 
meaning. 

I dream of a time when humanity shall come to 
its own, when physical nature shall be subdued 
to human service beyond all present conception, 
when want and disease shall have disappeared^ 



326 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

when the social order shall be an expresssion of 
perfect justice, when the race shall be rich enough 
to afford all its members the opportunity of a 
truly human existence, when the bondage of phy- 
sical drudgery shall have been taken off from hu- 
man shoulders, when the treasures of knowledge 
shall be a universal possession, and when over 
against these external conditions there shall be 
a moral spirit wise enough to use them and strong 
enough to control them. Then the kingdom of 
man and of God will have come. And to turn this 
dream into a reality is the Christian programme, 
the true meaning of the prayer, so often uttered 
and so seldom understood, " Thy kingdom come; 
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 

It is one of the paradoxes of our human life that 
some of our worst woes spring from our higher 
nature, and even from the moral and religious 
nature itself. Sympathy, without which there could 
be no society, is often a pronounced enemy of 
righteousness and the common good. Hence 
Kant declared all action springing from sym- 
pathy and similar emotions to be non-moral, as 
rooted in no moral insight and devotion. Con- 
science is often reactionary and obstructive, and 
all the more so as being conscientious. Not with- 
out reason has a French writer declared that " vir- 
tue is more dangerous than vice, as the excesses 
of virtue are subject to no restraints of con- 
science." An ordinary sinner may be restrained 
by considerations of humanity or public opin- 
ion, but Pharisaic fanaticism knows no bounds. 
And when this fanaticism is joined to religion, 
then we have all the conditions for the persecu- 
tions and religious wars which have covered the 
pages of history with infamy. Unless properly 



330 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

directed, virtue may indeed be more dangerous 
than vice. 

Our more dreadful aberrations in this matter, 
■we may believe, are past ; but in minor forms the 
tendency of the moral nature to lose itself in mis- 
chievous reaction or obstruction still remains and 
needs to be guarded against. Perhaps we shall 
better understand the problem by taking a con- 
crete case for illustration and guidance. 

There was a prominent controversy in the prim- 
itive Church respecting meats offered to idols and 
the duty of Christians in the case. Many of the 
disciples brought with them their Jewish traditions 
about the matter and sought to impose them on 
the Church as of abiding obligation. The Gentile 
disciples, on the other hand, believed in greater 
freedom and held the Jewish tradition as no longer 
binding ; and some of the more radical spirits 
would seem to have treated it with contempt. This 
naturally bred friction and misunderstanding and 
uncharity. St. Paul discusses the subject in two 
places, — in his letter to the Komans and in the 
first letter to the Corinthians. 

This question in its special form has of course 
no interest for us except as illustrating our prob- 
lem. This problem, which is perennial, is essen- 
tially the problem between conservative and pro- 
gressive morality. It is the problem of changing 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 331 

codes of conduct. It concerns, also, the measure 
of individual liberty and individual subordination, 
the extent to which the individual may assert his 
own freedom, and the extent to which he shall 
subordinate it out of consideration for others. 
This problem continually emerges in social 
changes. Old customs are outgrown. Traditions 
become obsolete, new duties arise, and our con- 
crete codes of conduct demand revision. Without 
this revision conscience falls behind social and 
intellectual development, and may even become 
an enemy of truth and righteousness. And un- 
less matters be rightly understood, there will be 
indefinite confusion and friction. Virtue will be 
made odious or ridiculous ; and progress, being 
made with violence and defiance, will lose much of 
its blessing. Hence the interest and importance 
of the old debate. 

Likewise, Paul's decision of the specific case 
has no longer any interest for us ; but his mode 
of treatment and the principles by which he 
sought to solve it have abiding significance. As 
to the meat question, he agrees with the disciples 
of liberty. He says : An idol is nothing ; and 
hence meat offered to idols cannot be affected 
thereby. He advises his readers to eat what is 
sold in the market, or what is set before them by 
their hosts, and be thankful. He adds : I know 



332 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that no- 
thing is unclean of itself. Neither will he allow 
his liberty to be judged of another man's con- 
science, as a yoke to be imposed upon him from 
without. But, on the other hand, if there be any 
who have not attained to this insight and liberty, 
they must follow their conscience ; for if any one 
thinketh anything to be unclean, to him it is 
unclean ; and he that doubteth is condemned if 
he eat ; because his action is not the freedom of 
Christian insight, but the transgression of his 
conscience. 

But this is not the end of the matter. St. Paul 
tries to lift the whole subject to a higher plane 
and to view it in the light of principles. In the 
first place he says : Let each man be fully per- 
suaded in his own mind. This recognizes that 
every one must be faithful to his own conscience. 
At the same time this conscience is for himself 
and not for another. Let us not, therefore, judge 
one another any more. Judgment is not ours, for 
we shall all stand before the judgment seat of 
God. Instead of this mutual judging, let love 
reign. The brother with weak conscience is apt 
to condemn the brother who insists on Hberty 
and to view him as yielding to sin. But the 
brother who insists on liberty is apt to set at 
naught the weak brother and hold him in con- 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 333 

tempt. But this also is a mistake ; for none of us 
liveth to himself. We may not, therefore, walk 
uncharitably and with our freedom grieve or 
cause to stumble or destroy the brother for whom 
Christ died. Moreover, the kingdom of God is 
not eating and drinking in any case, but right- 
eousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
The radical brother who insists on his freedom 
should remember this higher meaning of the 
kingdom. Likewise the brother of uneasy scruples 
should rise to this larger view. Finally, St. Paul 
proposes to both parties to consider the question 
in the light of a new principle : Whether, there- 
fore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all 
to the glory of God. 

Thus I have sketched St. Paul's two discus- 
sions of the topic. As said before, the special 
problem has no longer interest for us, except as 
it illustrates a perennial problem of society. 
Neither is St. Paul's particular decision of any 
interest to us, but only the principles which he 
brings to the discussion. The truth is that, ex- 
cept in the denial of any essential uncleanness in 
things offered to idols, St. Paul does not reach 
any decision. He only lays down the principles 
by which both parties should be guided. The 
discussion also is not between good and bad 



334 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

people, Christians and idolaters. If it had been, 
it could easily have been settled. It was rather 
between progressive and conservative Christians; 
and the problem of which this ancient debate 
was only a special case is, as I have said, the 
problem of progress and conservatism in morals, 
of the freedom and subordination of the indi- 
vidual. And these problems admit of no definite 
and final solution. They can be solved only ap- 
proximately in any case ; and no good result can 
be reached unless they are studied in the light 
of the Apostle's principles. These are : — 

First. The sacredness of the individiial's con- 
science for himself. 

Second. The duty of charity toward others 
who differ from us. 

Third. The duty of subordinating life and lib- 
erty to love and the glory of God. 

The problem in question arises naturally from 
the form of our moral development. The only 
thing that is fixed and absolute in morals is the 
good will and the will to do right. The law of 
love and the loyalty to what we conceive to be 
right are of absolute and inalienable obligation. 
No outside authority and no conceivable change 
of circumstances can absolve us from this cen- 
tral and basal duty. But this does not tell us 
what is to be done in any particular case. It only 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 335 

reveals the spirit in which we should live. What 
this spirit demands in the actual circumstances 
of life is not decided, and remains a problem for 
wisdom and experience to solve. Thus a physician 
may love the patient as himself, but that does 
not reveal the mode of treating the disease. The 
legislator may be impartially devoted to the pub- 
lic good, but that does not insure wise legisla- 
tion. For this he must have practical wisdom, a 
knowledge of human nature, of social needs, of 
economic laws, of the political situation. The 
philanthropist may have the Golden Rule for his 
motto, and he could not well have a better ; but 
this alone will not reveal how to deal with the 
problem of public charity. For this he needs not 
merely a soft heart, but also a hard and wise 
head, well furnished with knowledge of human 
nature and social problems and conditions. The 
physician, the legislator, the philanthropist, who 
are furnished only with good intentions, are not 
likely to be useful people, however well they may 
mean or however good they may be. The con- 
crete code is a function of knowledge as well as 
of good intentions. If our action is to be wise, 
it must be adjusted to reality and the present 
conditions of things. Hence it must vary with 
knowledge and also with social development. 
In these illustrations we see clearly that in 



336 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

concrete action there are two factors: the 
moral intention and motive, and a judgment 
based on reflection and the indications of expe- 
rience. And the same is true for all practical 
codes. They have the same double aspect, the 
moral intention and the judgment of wisdom. 
They are no original intuition of conscience, but 
the slowly built-up result of generations of life 
and experience. The moral nature itself is slowly 
developed, and the practical insight whereby it 
reaches the best form of conduct is developed 
more slowly still. Throughout this development 
men may be moral, in the sense that they act 
from moral principles ; but owing to their lack 
of knowledge, both of the inner and outer world, 
they attain only to very imperfect codes ; just as 
physicians, while always aiming at the cure of 
the patient, because of ignorance have fallen into 
great errors of practice. 

Now this general fact has for its result that 
our codes of conduct are no fixed quantities, but 
are ever undergoing change. The elementary 
duties, of course, are abiding ; but on the outer 
edges of expanding life change will always be 
going on. With the growth of knowledge, the 
increase of experience, the clearer indication of 
tendencies, there will be a change of judgment 
as to what should be done or left undone. Some 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 337 

things thought harmful will be found harmless. 
Some things thought harmless will be found per- 
nicious. Social customs will be modified to meet 
new conditions. Business practices will be ad- 
justed to public policy or the common good. 
With the deepening of spiritual insight, also, 
many things thought essential to religion will be 
seen to be indifferent ; and other things which 
may have been overlooked will be lifted into per- 
petual obligation. Thus our codes of life, our 
social customs, our personal habits, our political 
practices, are always undergoing criticism in a 
living community, and are slowly being adjusted 
to growing knowledge and experience. In this 
way a great improvement in our codes has been 
brought about within the historical period, and 
even within recent years. We need look back 
only a hundred years to find great advance in 
Christian codes. The saints of a century ago 
would hardly be tolerated to-day. Distinguished 
saints owned distilleries and defended the slave 
trade. Lotteries were used for the endowment of 
colleges and the building of churches, but now 
they are outlawed. Keligion has been purified 
and rationalized, social customs ameliorated, laws 
humanized, and the empire of conscience has 
been extended over larger and larger fields of 
life. We may have no better intentions than our 



338 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

ancestors, and in that sense may be no more 
moral ; but we are wiser, and our codes and cus- 
toms are better adjusted to life and reality. 

And a second result of this fact of develop- 
ment is that there will always be a border of 
conduct concerning which good men are not 
agreed. They will all agree that the right thing 
should be done, but they will differ concerning 
the thing to do. Some will cling to habit, to cus- 
tom, to tradition, and will view any departure 
therefrom with suspicion and alarm. Others, 
more adventurous, will wish to try the new and 
to improve the old. Or some with scanty experi- 
ence and narrow outlook will have no sense of 
the need of readjustment, and will look upon 
the demand for it as an expression of lawless- 
ness and disloyalty to the truth. Others of 
larger life and outlook will feel the inadequacy 
of the old and the need that it yield to the new 
as a better expression of the truth. 

There would be no objection to this opposition 
if it were ruled by the spirit of charity. It would 
then be simply the opposition of conservatism 
and progress, each of which is needed to keep 
the other sane and sweet. Without the criticism 
by conservatism, progress would be unsteady and 
flighty. And without the criticism by progress, 
conservatism would slumber in ignorance and 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 339 

sloth. Unfortunately, the matter is not always 
understood, and charity is often wanting. From 
lack of understanding the difference is commonly 
supposed to be a moral one, whereas it is only a 
difference of judgment as to what is wise in the 
case. From failure to understand the derived 
and developed nature of codes, also, the conser- 
vative is apt to regard the traditional code as an 
absolute deliverance of conscience or a revelation 
from God. Thus the code itself is sanctified as 
something inviolably sacred, and its critics are 
made to appear as the enemies of God and right- 
eousness. In this way the authority of God and 
conscience has been invoked for numberless cru- 
dities, imbecilities, and iniquities, and has been 
made one of the mainstays of political and eccle- 
siastical oppression. In the larger questions of 
political and ecclesiastical progress, the untaught 
and sophisticated conscience has been one of 
the great obstacles. The divine right of kings, 
the passive obedience of subjects, the sin of re- 
sisting authority, no matter how iniquitous it 
might be, especially the sin of criticising ecclesi- 
astical authority, the depravity of thinking criti- 
cally about religious teaching, — all these things 
have been stoutly insisted upon in the name of 
God and conscience. In minor matters the same 
way of thinking has produced a rich variety of 



340 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

grotesque and artificial notions, which are sup- 
posed to be the very gist of morality. Styles of 
clothing, forms of speech, social customs, have 
been insisted upon, which at best were justifiable 
only as temporary reactions against conditions 
then existing, but which for the most part were 
merely expressions of their authors' ignorance, 
poverty, lack of social outlook and spiritual in- 
sight. And on this pitiable basis they have often 
fallen into Pharisaism and spiritual pride and un- 
charity beyond anything possible to an ordinary 
sinner. 

One readily sees that when this dual origin of 
concrete codes is overlooked or unsuspected, 
conscience may easily become an enemy of pro- 
gress and even of humanity. Current thought in 
religion, current customs in society, even cui'rent 
whims in our particular sect, are invested with 
inviolable sacredness; and the tithing of mint, 
anise, and cummin takes its place along with the 
weightiest matters of the law. Then the whole 
force of the moral and religious nature is invoked 
to defend some caricature of good sense or to 
justify some hoary folly and iniquity. Such facts 
give color to Mr. Mill's claim that the appeal to 
conscience is an appeal from reason to prejudice 
and superstition. This is true of the conventional 
social conscience which, as just said, has often 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 341 

been the bulwark of blind conservatism and op- 
pression. In such cases the appeal should be not 
only to conscience but to science, political econ- 
omy, and social philosophy as well. 

Mr. Mill's claim is still truer of the ecclesias- 
tical conscience, which is very often arbitrary and 
artificial. In Russia it is a question with this con- 
science whether to make the sign of the cross 
with two fingers or three. The same kind of con- 
science is strong on the sanctity of saints' days, 
and finds in the cremation of the dead, which is 
purely a question of sanitary science, a denial 
of the resurrection. What would become of the 
"noble army of martyrs " in that case is left un- 
decided. Religious casuistry which is not based 
on universal rational morality is sure to fall into 
whims of this sort. Artificial commands are given 
the sanction of eternal principles ; and failure to 
observe some ecclesiastical regulation is viewed 
as worse than a violation of justice or good-will 
or any ordinary crime. A striking peculiarity of 
these artificial duties is that they are very apt to 
overtop the genuine. When one gets to tithing 
mint, anise, and cummin, the weightier matters of 
the law are likely to be overlooked. The rank and 
file of any religious body which has made an arti- 
ficial issue are pretty sure to regard the rites and 
customs which have grown out of it as of more 



342 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

sacred obligation than the moral law. I recall the 
case of a man who had been brought up on the 
notion of the impiety of singing hymns. Once, 
at the bedside of a dying friend who wished a 
hymn sung, he consented to start the tune, as no 
one else present could do it. But his conscience 
so smote him that he afterward said he felt worse 
than if he had stolen a horse — a statement which, 
from my experience with this type of conscience, 
I am inclined to think was true. 

Pseudo-spirituality abounds in this sort of thing 
in more or less striking forms, and the result is 
to produce a narrow and sophisticated type of 
piety, which is very often followed by revolt when 
the fiction is seen through. One of the most dan- 
gerous pieces of mental furniture for an otherwise 
well-meaning youth, in the present temper of 
thought, is a conscience which has been sophis- 
ticated by this sort of moral teaching. For it is 
likely to be seen through sooner or later, and 
then the suspicion will naturally arise that the 
rest of the teaching is of the same arbitrary sort. 
And if it is not seen through, the result is even 
worse. In that case a Pharisaic censoriousness 
is commonly generated, which is odious alike to 
God and man. Another result of this pseudo- 
spirituality is to make religion contemptible in 
the eyes of aU who have some sense of reality 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 343 

and of the real issues of life. There is a strong 
and growing impatience among thoughtful per- 
sons with religious pettiness. There is a demand 
that religion shall justify itself by a large and 
sympathetic grasp of life and by corresponding 
effort among the real issues of society. Selfishness, 
animalism, thoughtlessness, ignorance, — these 
are the things to be combated. Personal integrity, 
civic honor and devotion, love in the family, and 
justice and good-will in the community, — these 
are the things to be secured. And when one is 
concerned with these things, with the real king- 
dom of God which is to be brought in, one 
cannot escape a feeling of anticlimax and of in- 
sufferable pettiness when confronted with these 
artificial issues. 

Every one acquainted with ecclesiastical his- 
tory knows how much of this artificial morality 
and pseudo-spirituality there has been in the 
Church. And for this state of affairs there is no 
speedy cure. Cure must be a vital process, involv- 
ing the growth of intelligence and the clarifying 
of the moral vision. It will help, however, if we 
remember that our codes of conduct must vary 
"with growing knowledge, and that there will al- 
ways be an indefinite frontier where good men 
may differ as to what should be done, without 



344 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

any prejudice to the sincerity of their moral pur- 
pose. Many moral problems are indeterminate in 
themselves. Thus, who can sharply define what 
spirituality implies ? or mark off in clear outline 
the exhaustive code of the religious life ? Of 
course the thing is impossible, for this life is a 
spirit rather than a code, and can never be ex- 
haustively expressed in rules. Again, as soon as 
we get away from the routine of daily Hfe, the 
thing to be done is not easily discerned, and good 
men may and do differ in their judgments. 

It will equally help in solving this problem if 
we recognize the absolute legitimacy of the life 
that now is, and of all its normal impulses, in- 
stincts, interests, and activities. Any legislation 
is to be condemned which stigmatizes as common 
or unclean anything which belongs to normal 
human life ; and any such legislation is danger- 
ous which aims to reach a higher spirituality in 
any other way than by faithfully abiding in the 
work of life, and by the constant reference of 
that life to the will of God. The aim of religion is 
not only to get men to go to church and pray, but 
also, and much more fundamentally, to make men 
conscious of the divine will and presence in life, 
until the world shall become God's temple, in 
which men perpetually offer up the daily life, 
with all its interests and activities pervaded and 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 345 

sanctified by the filial spirit, as their spiritual 
worship of God. It was oversight of this fact 
which led to the fearful blunders of asceticism 
and its monastic outcome. A secret failure to 
appreciate this fact underlies the popular identi- 
fication of religion with formal rites of worship. 
But whatever ascetic renunciation or disciplin- 
ary rigor may be possible for a time, or in small 
bodies, it is certain that no religious organization 
will become general, or long command the lives 
of men, which is not as broad as humanity itself. 
Narrower conceptions may serve for a time, 
and may even seem justified in their origin, as 
revolts or protests against a prevailing looseness 
or indifference ; but even then it may be doubted 
whether they do not cost all they are worth by 
the time we are done with them. 

The Church as a whole has been prone to un- 
wisdom in this regard. It has taken John the 
Baptist, the austere and ascetic dweller in the 
desert, for its model, rather than the Master, 
who came eating and drinking, who knew what 
was in man, and who moved about among the 
humanities of life, sharing in them, sympathiz- 
ing with them, and looking upon them with so 
loving an eye as to give place and point to the 
charge that he was a glutton and a wine-bibber, 
a friend of publicans and sinners. And the Church 



346 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

will not become the Church of Humanity until 
it finds a holy place for all the interests of hu- 
manity. 

Thus we see that the problem in the primitive 
Church about Jewish feasts and eating meat 
offered to idols is only a special case of a general 
problem inherent in the very form of our human 
life. And now we are ready to apply Paul's prin- 
ciples to its solution. 

First, let every man be fully persuaded in his 
own mind and obey his own conscience. To be 
sure, conscience is far from infallible, and the 
conscience of many men is a very curious organ ; 
but such as it is every man must obey it. He 
must do the thing which to him seems right. He 
may be mistaken ; a broader knowledge might 
change his mind ; but so long as anything seems 
to him right, he must be loyal to it, no matter 
who differs from him. If, then, there be any 
social customs of which he disapproves, he must 
avoid them ; and if there be anything not recog- 
nized as duty by society, but clearly presented 
as such to him, that one thing he must do. No 
power in heaven or in earth can absolve him 
from obedience to his convictions of right. 

But this conscience is his own, not another's. 
He may recommend his view to others ; he may 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 347 

give reasons for the faith that is in him ; but 
when he insists on imposing it on others he may 
be assuming a knowledge which he does not pos- 
sess ; and when he concludes that those who dif- 
fer from him are morally unfaithful, he then as- 
sumes a knowledge of the heart which he cannot 
possess and falls into Pharisaic uncharity. For most 
of these questions which lie in the field of moral 
change and progress cannot be settled by talking 
or by any short process whatever. They often 
involve profound changes of opinion, mental illu- 
mination, changes of personal habit and social 
usage ; and these things are not brought about 
in a day. Only a person entirely ignorant of the 
world and life would dream of effecting such 
changes by a syllogism or an exhortation. Every 
other person knows that such processes are age- 
long in duration ; every other person knows the 
entire futility of impatience and browbeating and 
denunciation in hastening the result; and every 
other person also knows that until that which is 
perfect is come, good men will be found on both 
sides of such questions. It may be from defective 
knowledge, from insufficient reflection, from one- 
sided sympathy ; but whatever the cause, the 
fact will long exist. 

Now in such a state of affairs we must apply 
the Apostle's first rule, let every one be fully 



348 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

persuaded in his own mind ; and also his second 
rule, charity of judgment. Who art thou that 
judgest another? To his own master he shall 
stand or fall. This second rule is the one most 
frequently violated in this matter. Reformers 
especially are not content with having a con- 
science for themselves and with seeking by ra- 
tional means to brings others to the same mind, 
but they denounce those who differ from them, 
and thus injure their own cause and bring them- 
selves into contempt. The history of reform and 
reformers is a sad and shocking exhibition of the 
weakness of good men in this respect. Bitter and 
violent denunciation takes the place of a good ex- 
ample, temperate reasoning, and gracious charity. 
Or minor matters are magnified into supreme im- 
portance ; and a strange blindness to proportion 
and the relative importance of things is induced, 
which, when it becomes chronic, is incurable. 
Thus the reformers themselves get by the ears 
and waste a large part of their energy in fighting 
and denouncing one another, instead of combin- 
ing against the common foe. 

This second rule of the Apostle, charity in 
judging one another, we greatly need to lay to 
heart. The lack of it is a crying scandal to all 
good people and one great obstacle to moral 
progress. We all have known, we all know, of 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 349 

reforms which are very important to society and 
in which every good man must be profoundly in- 
terested, which nevertheless have been carried on 
with such uncharity and unscrupulousness, with 
such practical unwisdom and ignorance of human 
nature, as to defeat themselves, or at least most 
seriously to thwart themselves. And the convic- 
tion is becoming general that nothing will ever 
be done until these unwise leaders are cashiered 
and replaced by others of more practical insight. 
Of course if we postpone reform until it is 
done just right, we shall never get it. Even good 
things are rarely done in an ideal way ; and the 
weakest of all weak beings is the person of such 
exquisite taste that he cannot abide any reform 
because of the rude and uncultured and unaes- 
thetic character of the reformers. But it is equally 
sure that we shall get reform a great deal sooner 
if we learn charity and eschew malignant philan- 
thropy, and have our conscience for ourselves 
and allow others to have a conscience for them- 
selves, and penetrate to the unity of the spirit 
which may exist behind all diversity of judgment 
and custom. 

St. Paul himself was on the side of liberty. 
He was not willing to have his liberty judged of 
another man's conscience. He was quite willing 



350 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

that another should have a conscience for him- 
self, but not for him. He finds, however, a limi- 
tation in the law of love. Hence while all things 
are lawful, all things may not be expedient. 
Christian love and wisdom must be considered in 
the use of our freedom. All recognize this. Thus 
the truth may rightly be spoken, but he would 
be a very thoughtless or ignorant person who did 
not see that wisdom must control our freedom 
even here. Not all and every truth is adapted to 
every person and circumstance, and it would be 
easy to misuse our freedom in this respect so as 
by our truth to cause to stumble some weak 
brother for whom Christ died. As good and 
wholesome food may be destructive when the 
stomach is unfitted for it, so truth itself might 
be destructive for one whose mind was not pre- 
pared for its reception. Again, love is higher 
than liberty ; and I must not for the sake of 
liberty needlessly cause any brother to stumble. 
Liberty apart from love is apt to become un- 
charitable and contemptuous and as bigoted as 
bigotry itself. But these considerations are not 
rules which give definite guidance ; they are 
rather principles in the light of which we are to 
act, and which each one is to apply for himself. 
No one can give law to another in this respect ; 
no one can prescribe to another how far for 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 351 

love's sake he shall yield his own liberty ; least 
of all may the weak brother himself have a voice 
in the decision. 

This matter of the weak brother has been very 
much misunderstood. In deciding what is right 
or wrong in itself, the weak brother cannot be 
considered at all. This is a question purely of 
truth and right reason. To declare obligatory, 
out of regard for the weak brother, something 
which is not obligatory, is false and dangerous. 
It makes ignorance and prejudice and weakness, 
rather than the truth of things, the ground of 
legislation. It produces an artificial and fictitious 
code which is sure to produce revolt when it is 
seen through. It obscures the eternal obligations 
of justice and righteousness by petty fussiness 
about the tithing of mint, anise, and cummin. 
Now this is undue deference to the weak brother, 
and must never be allowed. St. Paul would not 
admit that an idol was anything, or that meats 
offered to idols were damaged thereby, or that 
there was anything unclean in itself. He would 
not needlessly offend, but he would not conceal 
the truth. And this is as far as Christian wisdom 
allows us to go. In the confusion of this human 
world it must needs be that offenses come, but 
in the long run the truth is the line of least re- 
sistance and of fewest offenses. Weak brethren 



352 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

abound on all sides of every question. If one is 
offended by the enlargement of liberty, another 
is offended by its limitation. Defect is as danger- 
ous as excess. Only the truth is safe, and only 
the truth makes free. The weak brother, then, is 
not to be considered at all in deciding the ques- 
tions of essential right and wrong ; but he is to 
be taken into account in the use of our freedom. 
We must not walk uncharitably, but in Christian 
wisdom and love. But the weak brother himself 
may never prescribe the measure of consideration 
to be given to his notions. That would simply 
encourage him in his whims and make him a still 
greater nuisance. He needs to be told the truth 
about himself now and then, lest he remain in 
error ; and the truth is that he has mistaken his 
own ignorant notions for universal principles; 
and the probability is that he has confounded his 
native conceit and pugnacity with zeal for the 
kingdom of God. 

The problems are indeterminate. The princi- 
ples given show the spirit in which we should 
deal with them, but they give no final solution. 
The application must be made by each for him- 
self and at his own risk. Each stands or falls to 
his own Master. St. Paul himself manifestly felt 
the impossibility of any hard-and-fast decision; 
and he leaves the matter with a final suggestion 



THE CHURCH AND MORAL PROGRESS 353 

designed to change the entire point of view. He 
says the kingdom of God is not eating or drink- 
ing, but righteousness and peace and joy in the 
Holy Ghost, and he urges his readers to give up 
hagghng and wrangling about eating and drink- 
ing and fast days, and make the glory of God the 
principle of all their living. All things, therefore, 
whatsoever ye do, whether ye eat or drink, do all 
to the glory of God. Thus the apostle sought to 
bring them to an insight into the spiritual nature 
of obedience, which should vacate their discus- 
sions by revealing a higher principle. God looketh 
at the heart. He takes account only of that ; and 
if that be right, he accepts or overlooks all the 
rest. A life of scruples is always weak ; and there 
is no end to them, if we allow them to begin. 
Scruples beget scruples and grow upon scruples 
until the moral life itself is lost in a Pharisaic 
casuistry to which there is no end. The only rem- 
edy is to reject this method of mechanical rule 
and scruple altogether, and simply seek to live in 
the love of God and man. This is the true and 
only law of Christian living. 

To covet earnestly the best things for men is 
the Church's great obligation. Whatsoever things 
are just and true and lovely and gracious and 
pure and helpful are to be secured in the largest 
possible measure. Nothing is to be held or cher- 



354 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

ished because it is old, but because it is true and 
helpful. Nothing is to be held because it is new, 
but because it is true and helpful. As soon as a 
better is assuredly in sight, the old, no matter 
how good, must go. With this principle firmly 
grasped and with the faith that this is God's 
world, the Church would take its place, where it 
really belongs, at the head of all the forces in 
life that make at once for social permanence and 
social progress. 



VI 

THE CHURCH AND THE TEUTH 



VI 

THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 

To the question, What is the relation of the 
Church to the truth? one might reply by quoting 
the text, " The Church of the Living God, the pil- 
lar and ground of the truth." And then another, 
with some knowledge of ecclesiastical history, 
might be led to inquire, Is this so ? Possibly the 
statement might be maintained for old and ac- 
cepted truth, but what of new truth ? St. Stephen, 
addressing some orthodox people of his time, said: 
" Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and 
ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your 
fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets 
have not your fathers persecuted? and they have 
slain them which showed before of the coming of 
the Just One; of whom ye have been now the 
betrayers and murderers." And one acquainted 
with history might with equal truth address the 
Church, considered as an ecclesiastical organiza- 
tion, and say: Which of the prophets has not the 
Church persecuted? What new truth is there 
that the Church has not opposed ? What mental 
or moral or social or political progress is there 



358 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

that the Church has not protested against; and 
what tyranny or oppression is there that the 
Church has not espoused and supported? Con- 
sider the present relation of Greek or Roman or- 
thodoxy to human progress, political, intellectual, 
or religious. Who expects to find either of these 
churches, as an organization, in sympathy with 
progressive movements. And consider also the 
attitude of many Protestant bodies to those larger 
ideas which advancing thought and study are for- 
cing upon us, and which have long been the pro- 
perty of educated and impartial minds. Whether 
in government, or in humanity, or in morals, or in 
social forms and religious thinking, the most bit- 
ter and determined enemy of progress has been 
the ecclesiastical organization. About this there 
can be no question. The facts look out of myriad 
pages of history and make up many of its black- 
est infamies. Are they not written in the books 
of the Chronicles by Buckle, by Draper, by Lecky, 
by White, and many another? Clearly in the 
light of such facts we cannot call the Church the 
pillar and ground of the truth without very great 
limitations. 

This question, however, cannot be discussed 
to edification by partisan defenses or by hysteri- 
cal belaborings. As a matter of fact the Church 
has commonly lagged behind the intellect of the 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 359 

time and very often behind the progressive con- 
science of the time ; so much so that orthodoxy 
has frequently been a synonym for ignorance, 
dullness, narrow-mindedness, and narrow-hearted- 
ness generally. The intelligent Christian should 
know this fact, and he should also know how it 
comes to be a fact, so that he may finally know 
how to deal with it and remove the scandal. 

The fact itself is the outcome of various causes 
which are deep-seated in the order of our human life, 
and which produce analogous effects in other fields 
as well as in religion. This we now proceed to show. 

The human world is an evolving one ; and in 
such a world both permanence and progress are 
alike necessary. If there were no permanence we 
should have simply chaos, and if there were no 
progress we should be confined to a social mo- 
notony which would be destructive. These two 
elements may be called the conservative and the 
progressive, and their necessity in normal society 
under human conditions is manifest. 

If society developed normally these two fac- 
tors would go side by side, and there would be 
no friction. Permanence would hold fast all that 
is good, and conserve whatever of value has been 
gained in human experience. The progressive 
element, on the other hand, would remember that 



360 STUDIES i:: CHRISTIANITY 

the permanent element merely conserves what- 
ever has been gained, and would point out that 
in changing human conditions it is necessary to 
adapt society to those conditions. Thus it would 
seek to produce the adaptation, and keep society 
adjusted to its circumstances. Unfortunately, this 
is seldom the case in actual life. We have an ex- 
cess of permanence or we have an excess of the 
critical and progressive element, and the result 
is that human development is very often accom- 
panied by a great deal of friction. Permanence 
becomes monotony, as in China; or progress 
becomes lawlessness and anarchy, as not infre- 
quently happens. 

Both elements, then, tend to be caricatured in 
life. We find in society, for example, vested inter- 
ests becoming indifferent to justice and human- 
ity, unwilling to make any progress and resisting 
it with all their might. But, on the other hand, we 
find wild reformers without any sense of social 
continuity, and unaware of the complex interests 
of society, who suppose that anything can be 
brought about to order by law. Tennyson thus 
describes them, — 

Men loud against all forms of power, 
Unfurnished brows, tempestuous tongues, 
Expecting all things in an hour, 
Brass mouths and iron lungs. 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 361 

We find the same caricature in the world of 
thought. It is evident to every one who thinks, 
that habit takes the place of thought with the 
great majority of people. Of course this must be 
the case with children. They live necessarily by 
the community intellect. They assent to the ideas 
about them. Instead of understanding them, 
they rather catch them by a sort of social con- 
tagion. The same thing is true to a large extent 
of persons of mature growth. They also live by 
the community intellect. They are averse to the 
labor and the pain of thinking. Indeed, they are 
unable to think. Instinct and imitation, fixed in 
custom and habit, are the only safe guide in this 
stage of development. Another source of mental 
inertia is self-interest. A new thought very often 
demands readjustment of life and conduct, and 
cannot be admitted without bringing far-reach- 
ing consequences with it. All such thoughts are 
sure to be resisted. Two sorts of people are al- 
ways conservative. The crass obstinacy and iner- 
tia of stupidity will be found in the conservative 
camp as a matter of course. The conservatism of 
self-interest is equally intelligible. The former 
is impervious to new ideas, perhaps congenitally; 
the latter adjusts beliefs, not to truth, but to de- 
sired ends. If necessary, new ideas can always 
be kept out in one way or another. A Hindoo, 



362 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

according to Macaulay, was once setting forth the 
sin of destroying animal life and insisting on the 
duty of a vegetable diet. Some one showed him 
his vegetable diet under a microscope, but the 
Hindoo managed the matter, not by changing 
his diet, but by smashing the microscope. 

On the other hand, the progressive element 
tends to draw to itself various undesirable people, 
not merely those who are seeking for new truth, 
but flighty persons, persons who insist on think- 
ing for themselves before they have learned to 
think at all. And thus the progressive camp tends 
to become a sort of cave of Adullam. It would 
be very desirable if these two elements, the con- 
servative and the progressive, could be united in 
the same persons, who seek at once to prove all 
things and to hold fast all that is good. In society 
they would recognize the things of permanent 
value in our inheritance from the past, and would 
conserve them with all energy, but they would 
also recognize that the world is moving, that we 
are entering upon new social conditions, and that 
the social order must be adjusted to correspond. 
In the thought world the same persons would 
recognize that the thoughts of men are widened 
with the process of the suns, and they would seek 
to retain the truth of the old and also keep their 
minds open for new truths from every quarter. 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 363 

If this were done we should then have a peaceful 
progress. Instead of having society divided into 
two rather hostile camps, we should have the two 
factors of permanence and progress united, and 
progress would be by evolution, and not by revo- 
lution. Or it would proceed by organic unfolding 
from within, instead of being mechanically im- 
posed from without. 

Thus in the nature of human development we 
find provision for conservatism in the instincts, 
habits, imitation, and inertia which underlie so- 
ciety. Without these society could never begin, 
to say nothing of maintaining itself. Religion, 
too, by its nature tends to conservatism, at least 
in its earlier stages. Indeed, that fixity of custom 
which was the first condition of emerging from 
savagery seems to have been primarily of a reli- 
gious nature. The safety of the tribe and its suc- 
cess in any of its enterprises were bound up with 
a species of religious orthodoxy ; and the tribe 
had to defend this orthodoxy at all hazards. In 
more developed times religion becomes more 
wisely conservative, but remains conservative still. 
The consciousness of having truths of supreme 
importance makes religion jealous of any de- 
parture from them in the realm of thought, and 
equally opposed to attacks on the social order. 
Hence the enemies of society have commonly 



364 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

found in the Church one of their most deter- 
mined opponents. It is not until a high degree 
of intellectual and moral development has been 
reached that the Church becomes a factor of 
progress as well as one of permanence. In the 
religious history of the race, religion has com- 
monly been opposed to progress. 

Conservatism, we have seen, is rooted in human 
nature ; it becomes still more deeply rooted in 
institutions. Our native conservatism does not 
reach its full strength until it has embodied it- 
self in institutions. These abide, and by their 
continued presence give law to life and thought. 
The institution by its very nature is conservative, 
and equally so are the managers. All rulers and 
administrators have a natural interest in main- 
taining the existing order. They are used to it ; 
they know how to work it. Besides, they often 
have an inside knowledge which the outsider 
lacks, and they see there are more things to be 
considered than the newspaper critic suspects. 
This broader knowledge and the sense of responsi- 
bility tend to conservatism. It is often remarked 
that Lord Morley, who, as John Morley, wrote 
a book denouncing " Compromise," has become 
notably considerate since he became Secretary for 
India and a member of the Upper House. But 
in any case " fear of change perplexes monarchs," 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 365 

large and small. They lie snug and safe in the 
harbor, and dread the risks of the open and un- 
known sea. They resent change and dread it. 
They are full of old saws about " bearing the 
ills we have " rather than " flying to others that 
we know not of." And these considerations apply 
to religious institutions and organizations as well 
as to political and social ones. And thus arises 
a new danger to the truth. The single eye, with- 
out which there is no light, is often replaced by 
the evil eye, and then the whole body is full of 
darkness. 

This fact is abundantly illustrated in religious 
institutions. Custom, rite, tradition, all organize 
in the religious community as a matter of course, 
and any departure from them easily appears as 
irreligious and destructive. Then, again, there is 
a tendency in all organizations to fall into the 
hands of men of a certain type, and to be warped 
from their essential aim and nature by various 
subordinate factors. Thus political parties tend 
to fall into the hands of bosses, and government 
tends to fall into the hands of inferior men, and 
in all organizations a certain poor type of man 
often comes to the front. The same is seen in 
ecclesiastical organizations when they become at 
all extended. Men of mediocre intellect and sub- 
mediocre character, but having a certain man- 



366 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

aging quality and a considerable regard for the 
loaves and fishes, become unpleasantly promi- 
nent. It is not easy in any such body to put 
the best men in power, men of the highest in- 
tellect and highest character. Such men com- 
monly have opinions and principles, and therefore 
are not the most pliable people, and are often 
distasteful to persons of quality, especially of op- 
posite quality. And when the inferior men are 
brought to the front, then lower interests become 
prominent. The financial aspects of religion are 
brought forward and emphasized. The value of 
place likewise becomes significant, and we tend 
to have men in prominence who have very little 
interest in the truth as such, but rather in main- 
taining the present order, in securing position 
and the perquisites of religious place. In the old 
temple an authority on the subject declared that 
this had resulted in changing the house of prayer 
into a den of thieves. The money-changers and 
the sellers of doves and the makers of shrines for 
the temple were unpleasantly prominent in the 
old days, and their descendants are still with us. 
Even these people have their place and function, 
but they are not fit to be rulers in the temple. 
St. Demetrius, who knew that " by this craft we 
have our wealth," is their patron saint. Such per- 
sons are always thoroughly orthodox. They have 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 367 

no interest in the truth, but they have an inter- 
est in the organization, and in what can be made 
out of it. And hence they are averse to change 
and they will resist change, even if it be progress, 
by all the means in their power. So it has been, 
so it is, and so it will be until human nature has 
very much improved. And this is a fact which 
we need always to bear in mind when we seek to 
combine religious progress with religious perma- 
nence. We must observe that the organization 
itself, unless we carefully guard it, tends to be- 
come an enemy of the truth. Obsolete traditions, 
worn-out notions, antiquated customs, are ele- 
vated into things of eternal obligation, and change 
is resisted either from what we have called the 
crass obstinacy of ignorance, or else from the 
interested obstinacy of self-seekers. This is es- 
pecially the case with state churches and with 
all great ecclesiastical organizations. One cannot 
follow the present ecclesiastical war against mod- 
ernism without perceiving that much more than 
the simple love for the truth is in play and in 
evidence. 

This study of the natural history of conserva- 
tism shows that the problem of conservatism and 
progress is not a simple one. Both elements are 
important and both are justified ; but in the con- 
fusion and complexity of human life both are 



368 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

often allied with unworthy agencies that discredit 
them. It is, then, the problem for the wise man 
to hold fast all that is good, and at the same time 
keep an open mind for all new truth or needed 
change. He must be able to read history, and 
he must also be able to discern the signs of the 
times. He must look both before and after. A 
man with eyes only in the back of his head will 
certainly make a poor guide ; and a man who 
ignores the past will be no better. The problem, 
then, is complex, and there will always be a point 
where discussion is going on and where there 
will be a division of opinion until events have 
clearly declared themselves. 

The great instrument of progress in all fields 
is discussion and criticism. Society roots back in 
human instincts and impulses, which of them- 
selves set us going and give life a certain form 
on their own account. We could not dispense 
with these, but they never make anything perfect. 
Man's instinctive life and its habits and products 
all need revision by intelligence before they can 
be finally approved. This is true alike of the 
physical, the mental, the social, and the poHti- 
cal life of man. There must be testing criticism 
and discussion of the past, in order to see what 
is to be kept and what is to be improved or set 



THE CHUECH AND THE TRUTH 369 

aside. The present is preeminently a period of 
this kind. At last we are beginning to take an 
inventory of our inheritance, with the aim of 
rationally appraising it. We are beginning to ap- 
ply intellect to the problems of life and society 
more systematically and comprehensively than 
ever before. The laws of health are being studied 
and applied ; the problems of disease are being 
attacked with unprecedented vigor; social and 
economic laws are being investigated with unex- 
ampled precision ; and the social order itself is 
subjected to thorough scrutiny. Of course this 
critical activity extends to religion also, in all its 
forms and doctrines. This movement, of course, 
will meet with ignorant and interested opposition, 
but nothing but good can come of it, if it is con- 
ducted in the right spirit. Knowledge will be 
enlarged, old diseases will be driven away, social 
injustice will be diminished, beclouding super- 
stitions will disappear, and life will become broad 
and sane and joyous. 

But here we are met by the fancy that the 
Christian religion at least is not subject to this 
critical movement or law of progress. In the 
Bible we have the truth once for all delivered 
unto the saints ; and thus the truth becomes a 
constant quantity, with no variableness or shadow 
of turning. Macaulay once said, mischievously 



370 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

or otherwise, ^^ Theology is not a progressive 
science *' ; and certainly a great many could be 
found to agree with him for the reason just given. 
This, however, is purely a product of closet 
thinking, as a look into Christian history shows. 
There is a certain constancy or continuity in 
Christian thought, and there is also a great deal 
of change. Provision is made for this fact in the 
distinction between a doctrine and the mode of 
conceiving it. In some sense Christian doctrines 
remain what they always have been, and we can 
find the fundamentals of the faith in the earliest 
creeds. But in some other sense we find our 
modes of conceiving these doctrines exceedingly 
various. Thus no one would conceive the divine 
sovereignty to-day as was done two centuries ago. 
Similarly, the doctrines of inspiration, atonement, 
moral retribution, are very differently conceived 
now from what they were then. It is in this way 
that provision is made for combining fixed doc- 
trines with a changing world. The doctrines re- 
main the same, sometimes the words remain the 
same, but the conceptions vary from one genera- 
tion to another, from one person to another, and 
even from one stagfe to another in the life of the 
same person. The contents we put into a doctrine, 
or our way of thinking of it, necessarily vary with 
our own mental and moral development. In the 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 371 

very nature of the case this cannot be escaped. 
An old scholastic maxim has it, " Whatever is 
received, is received according to the nature of the 
receiver." Which means simply that our under- 
standing of things depends upon our mental make 
and mental stage. We have had the Bible with us 
now for many hundreds of years, but there has 
been a most distressing slowness in understanding 
it. Its spiritual doctrines have been warped and 
distorted into some likeness of the student, and 
manifestly the fact could not be otherwise. A 
glance at the history of interpretation shows how 
men have read their own notions into the Bible. 
It is plain, then, that the possession of the Bible in 
no way removes the fact that this is a changing 
world in religious thought as well as in other 
things. 

We have before pointed out, what every edu- 
cated person knows, that the Church very fre- 
quently falls behind the intellect of the educated 
community and appears as an enemy of truth, or 
as something reactionary and hostile to know- 
ledge. If the Church could have had its way, 
modern civilization would never have developed, 
and humanity would have been ruined. We should 
have been living in filth and squalor and super- 
stition and intellectual abjectness of every kind. 
The Church saves the world ; and the world saves 



372 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

the Church. Only the instinctive and irresistible 
impulse of human nature, whereby it has vindi- 
cated its own rights, has saved humanity from 
destruction by religion. This intellectual back- 
wardness of the Church is nothing less than a 
calamity to religion, because it begets and con- 
tinues the notion that religion is essentially a 
thing of inferior intellect, and that it is afraid 
to come out into the open field of the world 
where plain secular daylight shines, and be tested. 
This notion is something seriously to be deplored. 
It tends to produce a separation between the edu- 
cated intellect and the religious world, which is 
of damage to both. 

So far as conservatism rests on ignorance and 
selfish interests, this intellectual scandal cannot 
be speedily removed ; but so far as it has a gen- 
uine rational root and interest, much could be 
done toward the removal of the scandal by sim- 
plifying Christian teaching. We should reduce 
the fundamental Christian doctrines to a state- 
ment of what we conceive the essential Christian 
facts to be, and should distinguish these, as facts 
to be proclaimed, from the various conceptions 
or theories of these facts, which make up the 
bulk of so-called doctrine. Such statement might 
run somewhat as follows: I believe in God the 
Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his Son 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 373 

our Lord. I believe in the Holy Spirit, in the for- 
giveness of sins, in the kingdom of God on earth, 
and in the life everlasting. Let this be the Chris- 
tian platform ; and for our programme let that 
run, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven. It is perfectly plain that 
this platform contains in principle all that is es- 
sential to Christianity ; and that all who stand on 
this platform and work for this programme are 
in the truest sense of the word Christians. It is 
equally plain that this platform would command, 
with scantiest exception, the assent of all the 
churches.^ This is the true continuity of Christian 
thought, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 
This is the true faith received everywhere and 
by all. This is the true orthodoxy, and the only 
thing that should be called orthodoxy. All else 
is theology, perhaps good, but in any case rela- 
tively unimportant, and in most cases absolutely 
unimportant. For the victories of Christianity 
have been and always will be won on this plat- 
form. It is by these mighty conceptions that we 
triumph ; and it is by bringing them into the 

^ This is not meant to imply that no other churches are Chris- 
tian, but only that all churches that stand on this platform are 
in the most orthodox sense Christian. When it comes to practi- 
cal Christianity, the essential thing is not naming the name, but 
doing the will; and when it is a question of membership in the 
kingdom, nothing is decisive but the affinities of the spirit. 



374 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

minds and lives of men that we spread tlie gos- 
pel, the good news of God. And against the 
Christian programme there can be equally no ob- 
jection. The aim is not to build up an ecclesias- 
tical hierarchy, or a churchly domination, but to 
do God 's will on earth as it is done in heaven. 
Against this there is no law and no opposition, 
except from the selfish side of our nature. This 
programme commands the assent of every lover 
of men in the Church or out of it. It has been 
the dream of every good man from the begin- 
ning and is the dream of every good man to-day. 
Finally, it is clear that no one standing on this 
platform and working on this programme will 
ever get far or dangerously astray. Here the 
pragmatic test comes in with decisive effect. The 
vital interest in the kingdom of God will perpet- 
ually generate right practical thinking. A church 
with no other theology and programme, if it were 
vitally interested in this, would not fail to give 
a good account of itself as a church of Christ. 

This is the true Christian orthodoxy, the thing 
on which the Church must insist as the condition 
of its existence. Historically, however, orthodoxy 
has been of another sort. It arises in this way: 
There is a natural desire to formulate Christian 
doctrine so as to show its philosophy. We seek 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 375 

to pass from the revealed facts of God's grace to 
a theory about them; and this theory becomes 
the orthodox one. Of course this formulation 
must take place in accordance with the reigning 
philosophy of the time; and when the progress 
of thought displaces the philosophy there is a 
conflict of reason and faith. Again, the Christian 
facts cannot lie in the mind unrelated to all its 
other beliefs, but is spontaneously adjusted to 
them. Thus it becomes complicated with the 
science of the time; and when the science pro- 
gresses we have a conflict of science and religion. 
Further, Christianity tends to adjust itself to 
existing social customs, and views any departure 
from them as dangerous and irreligious. Then 
when society progresses the Church is left be- 
hind, vainly protesting against the ^^ spirit of the 
times" as the "spirit of Antichrist," itself ap- 
pearing meanwhile as the foe of humanity. In 
this way the various orthodoxies arise ; and we 
have an orthodox philosophy, an orthodox astron- 
omy, an orthodox geology, an orthodox medicine, 
an orthodox political economy, and an orthodox 
politics. These are mainly obsolete phases of 
thought once current, to which Christian thought 
attached itself, but which now are outgrown and 
impossible. And Christian thought finds itself 
greatly enlarged and liberated when it avails itself 



376 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of the larger intellectual conceptions. Who would 
now think of going back to ancient geology, or 
astronomy, or physics, or medicine, or chrono- 
logy, or economics as aids to faith? The only 
possible reason any one could find for such a 
notion would lie in the belief in the verbal infal- 
libility of the Bible; and this belief has largely 
disappeared as unnecessary and groundless. 

Thus we see how the false orthodoxies arise 
and what they are. There are some of hierarchi- 
cal origin, but these we have no call to consider. 
Generally the false orthodoxies do not touch the 
essential Christian faith, but are interpretations 
of that faith in the imperfect thought of their 
time. In the nature of the case they lie in the 
realm of opinion rather than of faith ; and, 
equally in the nature of the case they are sub- 
ject to change with the growth of thought and 
experience. From the mode of their origin it 
follows that the most ignorant will always be the 
most orthodox in this sense. Having themselves 
little knowledge and no intellectual interest, they 
will desire to "stand in the old paths," that is, 
the old formulas, or, still more accurately, the 
old phrases. All that is needed for this is a com- 
petent and active ignorance and a belligerent 
conceit. With this furnishing, they read out to 
their own satisfaction all modern science, mod- 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 377 

ern history, modern sociology, modern political 
economy, and modern thought in general ; and 
know not meanwhile that they are poor and 
miserable and blind and naked, and know no- 
thing as they ought to know it. This has been so 
largely the character of self-styled orthodoxy, 
that one might almost have ground for a suit 
for slander or libel at being called orthodox. 

Now the way out of this scandal lies in distin- 
guishing the true orthodoxy of the essential Chris- 
tian facts from this orthodoxy of opinion and 
interpretation. At its best it is only an attempt 
to theorize on Christian doctrine, and might be 
exchanged for a Christian agnosticism with no 
loss whatever in many cases. Essential Christian 
teaching is independent of any or all of these 
orthodoxies, and they commonly only serve to 
obscure the good news of God. We can believe 
in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit 
without going into the metaphysics of the Trin- 
ity, and even while renouncing such metaphysics 
as beyond us. We can thus believe without say- 
ing, "Theology teaches that there are in God one 
Essence, two Processions, three Persons, four 
Kelations, five Notions, and the Circumin cession 
which the Greeks call Perichoresis." We can be- 
lieve in the forgiveness of sins without going 
into the " theories of salvation/' or the " order 



378 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

of salvation" under theological guidance. There 
has been a deal of theology of this kind which 
was worthless even in its own field, and which 
constituted one of the worst aberrations of Chris- 
tian thought ; but we are getting clear of it. It 
is only a few years since a theological professor 
was complained of for getting the '^ order of sal- 
vation " wrong, but we are coming to see that if 
we secure salvation the "order" will take care 
of itself. Many of these orthodoxies are so petty 
that they could by no possibiHty begin to-day 
but, being here, they are maintained only by 
force of custom. 

There will always be need of theology, but its 
field will be very much restricted in the future. 
The elaborate deductive constructions of the past 
will be abandoned as outrunning our data and our 
knowledge, if not our faculties. But the theologian 
will always have the function of formulating our 
Christian ideas and adjusting them to the current 
stage of thought and knowledge. In this way our 
ideas will fit harmoniously into the existing intel- 
lectual and social order, and wiU have their proper 
influence. But the results thus reached are never 
to be stiffened into an orthodoxy " which if any 
man hold not he shall without doubt perish ever- 
lastingly," or made into an " article of the standing 
or falling of the faith." These results are relative 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 379 

to conditions. They have varied greatly in the 
past; they will vary greatly in the future. In few, 
if any, departments of theology has finality of 
conception been reached. For instance, the prob- 
lem of eschatology has hardly been rationalized 
or moralized at all, and awaits its adequate dis- 
cussion. This, however, does not mean that every- 
thing is at sea, or even that anything of much 
importance is at sea ; for still and all the while the 
Church believes in God the Father Almighty, in 
the Son, our Lord, in the Holy Ghost, the for- 
giveness of sins, and the life everlasting; and this 
is all that is essential for faith or practice. 

Still there is an important field for the theo- 
logian. The realization of Christian ideas in life 
belongs to the individual disciple and the Chris- 
tian community ; their formulation and system- 
atic presentation belong to the Christian scholar 
and thinker. And these ideas cannot have their 
full effect until this work is done ; and because 
of the progressive order of life and thought this 
work will wait long for its completion. Know- 
ledge is growing, human nature itself is develop- 
ing, society is unfolding, experience is enlarging ; 
and our religious conceptions must change to 
correspond. Hence there should be in every 
church a large place for freedom of thought 
within the limits of what I have called true or 



380 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

essential orthodoxy, for it is only by free discus- 
sion that we can advance to new truth. It is now 
plain to every one that truth is not given all at 
once, and in the nature of the case cannot be, 
but is slowly developed through long processes 
of thinking as experience accumulates and know- 
ledge advances. Every church, therefore, needs 
to be very hospitable to new truth from what- 
ever quarter it may come, whether from science 
and from advancing history or from the criticism 
of history, secular and religious, or from the de- 
veloping moral nature and insight of the reli- 
gious community. Of course if any church is 
founded on some petty whim or prejudice, or if 
any church has staked its authority on obsolete 
science or disproved history, such church must 
object to freedom of thought, with the sure re- 
sult that sooner or later it will be abandoned of 
God and man, unless it bring forth fruits meet 
for repentance. But all other churches, if they 
have faith in God, must also have faith that truth 
will do no harm and cannot itself be finally 
harmed. As Lowell has it, " God's universe is 
fire-proof and it is safe to strike a match." 

Probably all of the larger Protestant bodies 
would in a way assent to this, but none of them 
is fully awake to its duty to the truth. The great 
body of church members have little real intellec- 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 381 

tual interest, just as the mass of men have little 
intellectual interest. Even the leaders are mainly 
taken up with the multitudinous routine of the 
religious community, and this bulks so large as to 
exclude all thought of anything else. The minis- 
ter has his two sermons a week and the mid-week 
service. Then there are the funerals, the finances, 
the church organizations, the pubHc demands, — 
what time has any one to think in such a whirl 
as this? Or the minister may be busy with more 
spiritual interests. He has an institutional church, 
or is managing a rescue league, or organizing a 
social reform movement ; and then the questions 
of the troubled intellect seem almost impertinent, 
if not unintelHgible. Any one, then, who finds 
fault with received and traditional formulas is 
likely to be a troubler of Israel, and we have no 
time to attend to him in any case. All this is 
true for a time but not forever. The still small 
voice of intelligence will at last be heard; and 
the gates of popes and bishops and general as- 
semblies and general conferences shall not prevail 
aofainst it. At last the outrao^ed intellect and 
conscience revolt against religion itself ; and then 
it is seen that there are questions perhaps even 
more important than who shall be made bishop, 
or when the Sunday-school picnic shall be held. 
Fiddling while Rome is burning is rational and 



382 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

praiseworthy in comparison with this dull indif- 
ference, while the intellect of a nation is being 
alienated from the Church and from religion. 

Questions of scholarship can be settled only by 
scholarship. Questions of fact can be settled only 
by evidence. The very notion of deciding them 
by authority is absurd. How many papal bulls^ 
or how big an ecclesiastical club, or how large 
a majority of ignorant votes would be needed to 
overturn the Copernican astronomy? Ignorance, 
in high or low places, is entitled to no opinion 
on these matters. Authority only makes itself 
ridiculous when it assumes to dictate. Majorities 
are equally absurd, unless they rest on the facts 
and the evidence. 

The Church, then, has need of a body of schol- 
arly investigators to do its intellectual work. They 
will have the function of formulating the spirit- 
ual life so as best to express it and keep it from 
losing its way in swamps of ignorance and super- 
stition. They will also have to adjust religious 
thought to the ever-advancing thought of culti- 
vated intelligence so as to remove needless mis- 
understanding. The rank and file of the Church, 
or even of the ministry, cannot be expected to do 
this or even to be deeply interested in this work. 
Most of them lack the abiHty, more of them 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 383 

lack the time. They may make good day-laborers 
in the Church, but they never can be master build- 
ers. As in science and general scholarship they 
must depend on others to guide them, so in the- 
ological and biblical scholarship they must de- 
pend on others for leadership and guidance. This 
most obvious fact makes it the duty of the 
scholar to bear witness to the truth in all proper 
ways. He must resist the conservatism of bigotry 
and enlighten its bHndness, and never permit the 
religious life of the Church to be crippled and 
thwarted by outgrown formulas, no matter who 
utters them. 

The same fact makes it important that the 
nominal leaders of the Church shall also be lead- 
ers in the intellectual world, or at least be aware 
of what is going on in that world, so as not to 
put themselves continually in the wrong. When 
the Copernican astronomy is everywhere received 
in the educated world, it is not wise or safe for 
the Church to be teaching the Ptolemaic doctrine. 
In the midst of twentieth-century physics it is 
not well for the Church to be teaching physics 
of the sixteenth century. Simply as a piece of 
policy, one could hardly imagine anything more 
futile and fatuous than that. In the presence of 
modern medicine the Church must not repeat its 
old theory about demoniacal possession. And now 



384 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

that the facts of hypnotism and suggestion are 
common property, the Church must not bring out 
its ancient doctrine of witchcraft. It is nothing 
less than pathetic to find persons harping away 
on obsolete knowledge in the idea that thereby 
the ark can be saved. They only do mischief 
and imperil the ark, which, if it be the real ark, 
must be able to stand alone. 

And here, too, we are by no means out of the 
woods yet in this matter. It is not uncommon to 
find nominal leaders in our church organizations 
who have failed to keep up with the times, and who 
seek to cover up their ignorance by authority, or 
by assumption, or by the various forms of eccle- 
siastical imposition which are so familiar to the 
student of ecclesiastical history. What shall we 
say of a bishop in these days who addresses a 
conference of young men thus: "I beg you, I 
beseech you, not to read any works on evolution 
or higher criticism ; but live and die in the faith 
of your mothers. And if it be said that then you 
will die in ignorance, be it so, and praise God 
for an ignorance that will give you peace." This 
is simply a recurrence of the dear old doctrine 
that ignorance is the mother of devotion. And 
what shall we say of a body of bishops that can 
issue pastoral letters in one of which the doc- 
trines of the virgin birth and the infallibility 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 385 

of Scripture are declared to be fundamental doc- 
trines of Christianity, and in another of which 
all those who do not accept the traditional teach- 
ings of the Church are commanded to keep silent 
or depart? Clearly we have here an outbreak of 
mediaeval ignorance and not a worthy utterance 
of people who know what is going on in the in- 
tellectual world to-day. Such persons are the 
worst enemies of the faith. While claiming to be 
its defenders, they really betray it in the house 
of its friends, and show absolute blindness to the 
intellectual conditions and needs of our time. 

Now with respect to the first doctrine which is 
mentioned, I have, myself, no difficulty. So far as 
I know I believe it. I certainly do not deny it, 
and I am in no way embarrassed by it. At the 
same time I should strongly protest against mak- 
ing it an article of the standing or falling of the 
faith of the Church. Manifestly it is a doctrine 
which can be received only by faith, and can 
never be put to any decisive test. I think in all 
probability that those who accept Christianity 
as a revelation of God will generally accept this 
doctrine ; and it will be held because of its 
beauty and aesthetic fitness as inaugurating a 
new era in the great order of divine revelation. 
But at the same time it is clear that there are 
considerable difficulties on the face of the nar- 



386 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

rative in accepting it. Jesus himself never 
refers to it, neither does John nor Paul refer 
to it, and even the two genealogies which are 
given in the gospels that report the miraculous 
birth are curiously puzzling. For instance, it is 
somewhat difficult to tell why Matthew should 
give the genealogy of Joseph when Joseph him- 
self is supposed by the doctrine in question to 
have had no part in the matter. But in any case 
the doctrine itself is nothing which afPects our 
fundamental Christian ideas at all. Nothing what- 
ever of importance depends on it. The divinity 
of Christ and his incarnation are absolutely inde- 
pendent of it. And those persons who try to con- 
nect these doctrines with the miraculous birth, 
in order to secure his sinlessness, always use a 
very limping logic. For if human paternity is in- 
compatible with the sinlessness of Jesus, a human 
maternity must be equally so. The Roman church 
has shown its sense of this fact and has sought 
to provide for it by its doctrine of the sinlessness 
of Mary. But if that be needed, then the sinless- 
ness of Mary's parents must also be assumed, and 
so on indefinitely. 

Historically, this discussion of the virgin birth 
has generally been based on the assumption of 
the undivineness of the natural. This view is 
ruled out by the doctrine of the divine imma- 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 387 

nence in all natural processes, so that God is not 
excluded from any fact or process by calling it 
natural. The person of Christ and his incarna- 
tion are the important thing, not the mode of 
his birth. As already said, Paul and John laid 
all emphasis on the former, and never mentioned 
the latter. 

As respects the technical infallibility of the 
Scriptures, probably no doctrine is the source of 
more difficulty and unbelief than this. That it 
cannot be maintained every one knows, that 
knows anything about the subject, and it is 
nothing less than astounding to find the leaders 
of a great church, supposed to be scholarly and 
intellectual, setting forth as late as 1894 in a 
pastoral letter this doctrine as a fundamental of 
the Christian faith. This is worse than blind 
leaders of the blind. 

Such leaders should confine themselves to 
deciding and condemning; it is always a mis- 
take for them to give reasons, that is, of the 
scholarly sort. They have, however, an argument 
of an ethical type of which they are very fond 
and which deserves some notice. In the second 
pastoral letter referred to, it is said that persons 
who do not accept the traditional views of the 
Church should keep silent or depart; and it is 
very common to hear such persons accused of 



388 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

being untrue to ordination vows, or common 
honesty, or something or other which is supposed 
to be rhetorically effective. This makes it neces- 
sary to devote a word to the ethics of creed sub- 
scription. 

It is commonly supposed that this matter of 
truthfulness can be settled offhand by easy ap- 
peals to what is called the " plain man " or the 
" man on the street." And it is easy to say, If 
you do not accept this, get out; if you do not 
accept this, it is dishonest for you to remain in a 
church that does accept it. To the plain man 
or the man on the street of course this sounds 
very conclusive, and the dishonesty of any 
doubter on this point is very manifest. However, 
all who have occasion to examine this general 
question of veracity know that when we get away 
from some very simple every-day affairs it is one 
of the most slippery and difficult notions possible. 
T have recently had a letter from an anxious 
inquirer asking if the divine veracity is not hope- 
lessly impugned by the general illusiveness of 
life, the sense world, etc. And in our human 
world there are very few questions which can be 
answered by yes or no, and particularly is this 
the case when we come to these larger and more 
complex questions of interpretation of creeds 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 389 

and documents. It is well known that all creeds 
are historical compromises, which at best are to 
be accepted only for substance of doctrine, and 
which, moreover, always allow of a broad and a 
strict interpretation. It is only as this is under- 
stood that any creed whatever can serve as a 
working platform for a body of men. 

In the interpretation of the Constitution, the 
same fact appears. We have the State Rights in- 
terpretation and the Federal interpretation, and 
we have one great political party inclining toward 
the stricter interpretation and another great po- 
litical party inclining toward the Federal interpre- 
tation. It would be in the highest degree absurd 
for members of these parties to twit those of the 
opposite party with being traitors or perjurers. 
The fact and its necessity are perfectly recog- 
nized by intelligent people. Similarly with creeds : 
a fixed creed in a changing world must admit of 
being interpreted in accordance with the new 
conditions under which it is applied, or the new 
facts which emerge ; otherwise it could not en- 
dure from one generation to another. This, 
again, is understood by intelligent persons, and 
they know that the creed is to admit of the vari- 
ous interpretations as a condition of being a 
creed at all. Change of creed from one day to 
another would be impossible. To change it every 



390 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

few years would be scarcely better. Under those 
circumstances we have to do with creeds just 
what we do with laws and constitutions. We 
must interpret them not merely in accordance 
with past beliefs, but also in accordance with 
present conditions and present knowledge. 

Here, again, the stickler for what he thinks is 
veracity may interpose that creeds must be inter- 
preted in accordance with the original intention, 
and here, again, he only shows his ignorance. For 
the fact is that no creed of any age and complex- 
ity is or can be interpreted in strict accordance 
with the original intention. The simple progress 
of astronomical knowledge makes it impossible 
for us to interpret, say, the Apostles' Creed in 
strict accordance with the original intention. 
Thus, " He descended into Hell," " He ascended 
into Heaven," and so on. We know very well 
what the notions of the original formers of this 
creed were in these clauses, for they were based 
upon the fancy of a flat earth with the hell down 
below and the heaven up above. But since the 
Copernican astronomy those notions of course 
have disappeared. Similarly we could find psy- 
chology, philosophy, and moral and political 
science setting aside many a notion of older 
writers, so much so that we agree with them, if 
at all, in the essential spirit of their thought and 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 391 

only to a slight extent in the real contents which 
they had in mind. 

And that this must be so is further clear from 
the fact that the opposite view is to make truth 
itself a heresy. If we could suppose that a com- 
pleted and final system of orthodoxy had been 
once for all delivered unto the saints, then we 
might say that the church in possession of this 
precious treasure might rightly require all who 
differ from it to depart. But then we know that 
nothing of the kind has existed. Orthodoxy it- 
self historically has been a very changeable quan- 
tity. There are very few of the stoutest defenders 
of the faith who would not be ashamed of things 
once held orthodox and counted important. It 
is plain, then, that we must provide for the en- 
trance of new truth into our system of religious 
thinking, and any church which does not do so 
and which insists that those who have progressed 
in thought shall keep silent or depart, condemns 
itself ; and its leaders show thereby that they 
have no insight into the truth themselves, and 
make it very probable that their pretended in- 
terest is of the vested kind, an interest in the 
financial aspects of the case, or an interest in 
their own dominance or somethins" of that sort. 

c5 

And yet persons talk so ignorantly on this sub- 
ject that we have had heresy trials conducted on 



392 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

the principle that the truth or falsehood of the 
statements tried was not to be considered at all, 
but only whether they agreed with the profession 
of faith. At the trial of Professor Henry Preserved 
Smith some years ago this principle was announced 
and was received with very great satisfaction by 
the General Assembly, as it made it exceedingly 
easy to dispose of the professor. For plainly his 
views on higher criticism could hardly be expected 
to agree with the profession of faith made hun- 
dreds of years before higher criticism had been 
dreamed of. And at a still later trial for heresy 
the same principle was announced with equal sat- 
isfaction, as being something like a revelation 
from above. But what a pitiable comment on the 
pretense of high veracity and zeal for the truth ! If 
this principle of interpretation which makes truth 
itself a heresy unless it agrees with traditional 
formulas were strictly applied, it would result in 
turning over all our churches and their property 
to a few ignoramuses, so dull and so ignorant as 
to be scarcely above the brute. Meanwhile the 
churches would exist not to seek and proclaim 
the truth, but to maintain a profession of faith, 
although it had been proved to be false ! If that 
is what the churches are for, they ought to spare 
us their reflections on truth and honesty. We 
commend as an interesting problem for ecelesi- 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 393 

astical casuists the question, How long may a 
church continue to teach what is known not to 
be so? 

Plainly when the professional ark-saver begins 
to make rhetorical flourishes about truth and 
truthfulness, he soon gets out of his depth. It 
is indeed engaging to find such show of zeal, but 
veracity has never been a prominent orthodox 
virtue. And we need not go back to the times of 
Huss when it was declared, to the scandal of the 
secular authorities, that faith need never be kept 
with heretics, for we can find illustrations much 
nearer our own day. A legal friend lately re- 
marked that he had had somewhat to do with 
ecclesiastical trials and had never found one 
conducted with much regard for right or truth, 
certainly none conducted in a way required in 
secular courts. An illustration : A ministerial 
acquaintance of mine some time ago was on a 
committee to report on the orthodoxy of a certain 
book. When the committee met this person asked 
how many of the committee had read the book 
in question. The question proved embarrassing, 
and he insisted upon an answer. Then it turned 
out that four men of the seven composing the 
committee had never seen the book. But they were 
perfectly ready to pass judgment upon it. Such 
a thing could not have happened in any secular 



394 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

court under the sun, and in a secular court such 
a committee would have been dismissed with se- 
verest rebuke and most likely heavily fined for con- 
tempt of court. But these godly people did not 
need to take into account such commonplace mat- 
ters as fairness and truth and justice. They had 
the witness in themselves. They had not to dis- 
cuss, they needed only to decide. They had not to 
refute; it was theirs to condemn. Now people of 
this sort must not talk too much about veracity 
or twit with inveracity those who are trying to 
mediate between the old and the new ; for in 
my opinion there is no person less careful of the 
truth and more willing to give ear to evidence 
that jumps with his disposition, and more unready 
to deal impartially with evidence, than precisely 
this ecclesiastic who talks about veracity and calls 
upon those who differ from him to be silent or 
depart. On the contrary, they owe it to the truth 
and the Church alike neither to be silent nor to 
depart, but to stay where they are and bear wit- 
ness to the truth in all wise and proper ways. 
Only thus can religious thought progress. To 
depart would be to deprive the Church of intel- 
lio^ence and leave it to flounder and smother in 
superstition, like the brainless monsters of ancient 
times that floundered and perished in palaeonto- 
logical swamps. 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 395 

But surely, it will be said, there is, or ought 
to be, such a thing as loyalty to ordination vows. 
Of course there is, and it lies in loyalty to what 
I have called the fundamental platform and pro- 
gramme of Christianity. Whoever departs from 
this must be judged to have renounced our dis- 
tinctively Christian teaching and should seek 
some other fold. But generally these so-called 
heresy cases are not properly such, but rather 
cases of practical wisdom and ef&ciency, and 
they should be dealt with on that line. When 
any minister differs so widely from his brethren 
that he cannot work with them, his place is else- 
where, not because he is a heretic, but because 
of his inability to stand on the same working 
platform. Be he heretic or orthodox, he is im- 
practicable, and in so far undesirable as a Chris- 
tian teacher. A man must have some measure 
of sympathy with the aims of a political party in 
order to be a member of it. If he is purely and 
only and always a mugwump, he must go else- 
where. The same is true of church af&liation. 

Again, a minister may have sundry advanced 
views on biblical or doctrinal matters, and may 
be quite correct in holding them. At the same 
time he may become so obsessed by them as to 
make them practically false and make himself a 
nuisance. He may be persuaded of the post-Mosaic 



396 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

origin of the Pentateuch, or the plurality of Isaiahs, 
and similar matter, and thereafter be unable to see 
or say anything else. He denies that Moses wrote 
the Pentateuch, or that there was a single Isaiah, 
or the historicity of the book of Daniel, or the 
virgin birth of our Lord ; and these denials bulk 
so large in his mind that he forgets the gospel 
itself. Such a minister might rightly be cashiered, 
not on the ground of heterodoxy, but for practi- 
cal unwisdom. His views are not properly hetero- 
dox, but he is not a useful, and may be a mis- 
chievous, person. Undoubtedly this is sometimes 
the fact in what are called heresy cases ; and it is a 
great mistake to raise the question of heresy in- 
stead of the practical question of efficiency. The 
indictment is wrongly drawn. 

In another point the advanced thinker often 
fails as a religious teacher. He overlooks the in- 
strumental character of language and supposes 
that language itself says something. Of course 
language is only a means for expressing thought, 
and that language is best which best expresses 
the thought. It follows that the value of language 
is relative to the person addressed. It further 
follows that the language for scholars may not 
be the best language for the " plain man " or 
the " man of the street.'' Even shibboleths may 
have their use at times, and may more accurately 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 397 

convey our thought than the more careful lan- 
guage of the schools. The religious teacher should 
understand this. He should aim to be understood, 
and in order to this he must use " language un- 
derstanded of the people." If any one can find 
religious help in some crude form of speech or 
some crude symbol, I should be willing for him 
to have it. If any one cannot believe in God the 
Father and in his Son without believino^ in the 
whale of Jonah or the ass that spoke, or the talk- 
ing serpent and other saving truths of that kind, 
I should say. By all means believe in them. If 
these are the only things that hold you to the 
deeper truths of religion, hold on to them with all 
your might ; only you must not insist that others 
also must believe in them. 

So far the Church may go in condescension to 
ignorance, but no farther. The Church should 
always be a church for the ignorant, but it should 
never be an ignorant church. Ignorance can do 
little for the ignorant in any field, and least of all 
in religion. Ignorance left to itself must tend to 
grovel in superstition. Nothing but the clear, dry 
light of intellect can save religion from this fate 
which has overtaken, not only the outlying non- 
Christian religions, but Christianity itself in a 
great many places, say the churches of Abys- 
sinia and northern Africa and western Asia. The 



398 STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY 

Christianity of these churches is scarcely higher 
than sorcery and incantation, and the reason is 
the lack of intellect and its free play. Among 
ourselves as soon as the control of intellect is 
withdrawn we have the fantastic excesses of the 
multitudinous sects, such as the Holy Jumpers, 
etc., who fancy that God is pleased with their 
ignorance and mistake their religious indecency 
for a special mark of divine illumination. " God 
don't need your book-larnin'," one such saint 
said to Dr. South. '^No," was the reply, "and 
he does n't need your ignorance, either." We are 
not saved by taste, good or bad ; but good taste 
is preferable, even in religion. 

The Church certainly has other interests than 
those of the intellect, and our nominal leaders are 
by no means sinners above all men that dwell at 
Jerusalem. But they are seldom intellectual lead- 
ers, and they are required by their position to 
decide on questions beyond them. And this is an 
evil thing under the sun. Ignorance in high places 
is increasingly dangerous. Had our churches in 
the last generation had real leaders, who were 
equal to their position, and who commanded the 
respect of the churches by their scholarship and 
their character, to speak about the disturbing 
religious questions of our time and to say to the 
churches : These questions at best are of only sub- 



THE CHURCH AND THE TRUTH 399 

ordinate importance and do not affect the funda- 
mentals of the faith, we should have been saved 
much confusion, friction, and disgrace. But in- 
stead of that we had men who were not equal to 
their position, men whose scholarship and charac- 
ter did not command the respect of the commu- 
nity, and the result is familiar to all of us. 

These things ought not so to be, but so they 
are, and so they will continue to be until the 
Church gets a deeper sense of its relation to the 
truth and of its obligations to it. Only thus can 
this age-long scandal of a church hostile to the 
truth and perpetually compelled to surrender with 
dishonor be done away. 



CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 



MAR 10 1909 



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